Author: Amicus Curious

Patent application number: 20160109707

No aficionado of patent drawings should miss out on ‘Combining At Least One Variable Focus Element With A Plurality Of Stacked Waveguides For Augmented Or Virtual Reality Display‘ to Magic Leap, Inc.

… he “sees” a robot statue (1110) standing upon the real-world platform (1120), and a cartoon-like avatar character (2) flying by which seems to be a personification of a bumble bee, even though these elements (2, 1110) do not exist in the real world.

20160109707_01a

Perhaps the ‘personification of a bumble bee’ is just a flight of the imagination.

Nagoya Protocol – new book release

‘The Nagoya Protocol: Its impact on access & benefit sharing, patent applications and the utilisation of genetic resources’.

Today sees the release in paperback of the first book by Millicent Ligare in this field.

The Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity was adopted on 29 October 2010 in Nagoya, Japan, and entered into force on 12 October 2014.

Now the debates are in full swing across the world about how to implement the protocol at the domestic level.

If you feel perplexed by topics such as “International access and benefit sharing regimes under the CBD, ITPGRA, IGC & TRIPS”- then this is the book for you.

Written for everybody interested in the Nagoya Protocol, those who did not realise it existed, and those who do not know how it will affect them, this concise, but extensively referenced work, is a must for students of the topic.

This book demystifies

  • The historical background to the protection of IPRs
  • What is ‘Access and Benefit Sharing’?
  • The position of ABS under the CBD
  • The position of ABS under the TRIPS Agreement
  • Patent applications and the utilisation of GR, post-CBD and post-TRIPS
  • The implications for ABS, patent applications and utilisation of genetic resources, after Nagoya.

The author: Millicent Ligare is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya, and holds an LLM from the University of the West of England, Bristol.

 

Nagoya Protocol – new book to be released tomorrow

Nagoya Protocol‘The Nagoya Protocol: Its impact on access & benefit sharing, patent applications and the utilisation of genetic resources’,
is due for release tomorrow in paperback.

Ninety-five percent of torture today is not for political prisoners

“Ninety-five percent of torture today is not for political prisoners; it is for people who are in broken-down legal systems,” says Karen Tse, founder of International Bridges to Justice.

 

A former public defender, Karen Tse developed an interest in the intersection of criminal law and human rights after observing Southeast Asian refugees held in a local prison without trial, often tortured to obtain “confessions.” In 1994, she moved to Cambodia to train the country’s first core group of public defenders. Under the auspices of the UN, she trained judges and prosecutors, and established the first arraignment court in Cambodia.

In 2000, Tse founded International Bridges to Justice to help create systemic change in criminal justice and promote basic rights of legal representation for defendants on the ground. Her foundation complements the work of witness groups, who do the equally vital work of advocacy, reports, photographs. Tse’s group helps governments build new systems that respect individual rights. In IBJ’s first years, she negotiated groundbreaking measures  in judicial reform with the Chinese, Vietnamese and Cambodian governments. It now works in sixteen countries, including Rwanda, Burundi and India.

She says: “I believe it is possible to end torture in my lifetime.”

You can connect with IBJ via their Facebook page.

TED Talks are licensed under:  Creative Commons license Attribution – NonCommercial – NonDerivative (BY-NC-ND)

Torture in Africa: The Law and Practice

A meeting of African experts on the law and practice on torture was held in Naivasha, Kenya in May 2012.
It was organised by REDRESS in collaboration with the Independent MedicoLegal Unit (IMLU) as part of the project on “Reparation for Torture: Global Sharing of Expertise” supported by the EU’s European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR).
The meeting formed a part of a series of regional events that REDRESS has organised in different parts of the world that seek to strengthen
collaboration of practitioners to more effectively combat torture. The contributions made before and during the meetings will form part of regional and global reports on the law and practice relating to the prohibition of torture.
It provided an opportunity to exchange information and experiences on litigating torture cases and advocating legal and institutional reforms.
Throughout, experts identified both systemic challenges and best practices in relation to promoting accountability and redress for torture.

The summary report of 11 pages can be read at Redress here. You can also read the full 42 page Torture in Africa: The Law and Practice report from September 2012. This is an important resource for those in the field, and indeed all human beings.