A year-old United Nations project aimed at helping developing country health research institutions to protect and commercialize their results has reached its halfway point, with 90 newly trained experts in patents and licences, the coordinating World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) said today.
[align=right] The research institutions are based in six Central African countries - Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of Congo - and one Latin American country, Colombia. Major financial support comes from the Geneva International Academic Network (RUIG-GIAN).[/align] A lack of critical infrastructure, resources and key IP professional skills in developing countries has led to low economic returns on research and development (R&D) investment, difficulties in promoting the local development of desperately needed therapies and a lack of leverage for concluding technology transfer agreements.
Many of the institutions are working to combat malaria and other tropical diseases and, in the WIPO-GIAN project, more than 90 scientists and lawyers have been trained in such techniques as drafting patent applications and licensing agreements.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200509300461.html

How often does intellectual property law amount to people with no brains or talent making money off people with brains or talent?

http://discussions.pbs.org/viewtopic.pbs?t=39464

umbrarchist[/size]