Publications

Comparative Effectiveness Research(CER is in the spotlight as a tool for addressing healthcare quality and improving health care value.

Prof. Hindley argues that "Competition authorities sometimes seem to see themselves as a modern-day inquisition, sniffing out evil wherever it may be found. But such enthusiasm is neither efficient nor rational. An efficient competition policy will pursue abuses so long as the cost of correcting them is less than the expected gain from the correction. The more strained the arguments used by a Competition authority become, and the more complicated the computations it must perform to further its pursuit of virtue, the stronger the ground for doubt that it is attempting to follow that rational rule.

The first in a new series of policy papers from the Stockholm Network's Intellectual Property and Competition Programme, looking at the 'network neutrality' debate which has taken place in the USA, and its potential impact on European lawmakers.

One of the most fundamental problems in public discussion of European intellectual property (IP) policies is the shortage of information about the specific composition of an
IP environment, relevant to Europe’s high tech industries (in general), and the information technology (IT) sector in particular.
In order to narrow this gap, the Stockholm Network in association with Managing Intellectual Property Magazine and the Progress & Freedom Foundation has developed a new and innovative statistical index aimed at measuring the strength of intellectual property rights (IPRs) in the IT sector in different countries.

In this isseu of Know IP we look at the following topics:

1) Oxfam is an Honourable Organisation or the Unbearable Ease of Half-Truths?
2) Defending Oxfam`s Honour
3) Support in the Field of IPRs for SMEs: To Patent or not to Patent?
4) Some Recent SPC Developments in Europe
5) News Flahes
6) Recent Events

Imagine living in a world where doctors were afraid to write prescriptions because it was unclear whether or not the pharmacy had genuine, ‘real’ medicines on its shelves. If the counterfeit medicines industry is allowed to continue its growth, such a future is not only imaginable, but is all too possible.
The business of creating, distributing and selling counterfeit medicines is an unregulated, criminal and growing part of the global economy. But there is one major difference between pharmaceutical counterfeiting and other underground industries: lives are at stake.

In the second instalment of The Stockholm Network's IP Experts' Series, Dr Duncan Curley looks at the role of European legislation in fostering a competitive innovation and intellectual property climate.

The latest entry in the Stockholm Network's A Healthy Market? series looks at the role of private markets in the provision of healthcare in Europe and addresses such questions as:
• What is the meaning behind a consumer driven healthcare system?
• What role has the private sector played in healthcare and what has it contributed?
• Where does the market succeed and where does it fail?
• What is the role of the private sector in providing solutions to the problem of funding?
• What role should the government play in the provision of healthcare?

In this issue of Know IP we look at the following issues:

1) Will the EU Fail Again?
2) Turning the EU Competition Authority into a Software Certification Authority
3) What`s on the Scientists` Minds?
4) News Flashes
5) Upcoming Events

In this paper, which is the first in the Stockholm Network Expert's Series on Intellectual Property and Competition, Prof Blakeney argues that "IP has applications across many different human activities: industry, commerce, health, nutrition, communications and culture. This is reflected first in the large number of national, international and regional treaties, conventions and laws which have an IP application, as well as in the large number of national, international and regional organisations and government departments asserting an IP policy-making role. A result of this crowded policy field is that IP policies are sometimes overlapping, contradictory and confusing. It is also difficult for countries to participate effectively in the many different policy fora." This situation necessitates the establishment of a capacity at the national level for inter-ministerial collaboration in IP policy formulation.