Publications

This edition of Know IP contains the following articles:

• Commentary – Some declarations just don’t make sense – on software and standards – Meir Pugatch and Helen Disney
  
• Topic of the Month – Top of the league – The challenge of being the best – Paul Healy
  
• Experts’ Corner – IPRs and SMEs: Does public policy adequately support small firms on IPR matters? – Alfred Radauer
  
• Views – China & the Olympics: Was it gold for IPRs? – Sloane Ebersole
  
• Event – Evidence-Based Policy in the Field of Intellectual Property Rights: Using Cutting-Edge Research to Improve Intellectual Property Policymaking – Stockholm Network Workshop
  
• New publications - Courting Confusion? Where is Canada’s Intellectual Property Policy Heading? – by David Torstensson and Dr Meir Pugatch, and If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It. A Discussion Paper on the Benefits of the Voluntary Market-Driven Approach to Innovation – by Dr Meir Pugatch
  
• News Flashes – Top stories in the world of IP and competition

In this paper the Stockholm Network explores the concept of spending limits within HTA bodies and so-called thresholds. The paper finds that even in countries where the use of HTA is advanced, stakeholders of the respective health systems have no way of knowing what rationale HTA decisions are really based on. HTA bodies in the world typically avoid defining clearly (and even intentionally avoid making public) what threshold they are using to determine the cost-effectiveness of a given treatment. Yet this does not necessarily have to be the case.

In The Health Quality Agenda the Stockholm Network has taken a fresh look at the issue of health care spending.

This paper attempts to re-evaluate the way health care expenditure is understood. As such, it pertains to a much wider understanding of health and health care than is normally taken into account by policymakers. In particular, it examines consumer spending on a novel basket of health and wellbeing goods, which relate to this wider understanding of health.

This paper demonstrates that in categories ranging from sport and fitness expenditure to alternative medicine, cosmetic surgery and healthy eating, consumers are sending a clear message. Our desire for health and wellbeing is growing in a hitherto unprecedented manner and, based on observed trends, demand for better health is expected to keep on growing. Indeed, no longer a fringe industry, the global health and wellbeing sector was last year estimated to be worth a staggering $1trillion.

This paper concludes that greater purchasing power and economies of scale can be replicated within private care. Using appropriate combinations of government regulation and the power of consumer choice and competition is the best way to create a health care market which will allocate economic resources most efficiently and also drive up standards.

This eleventh edition of Climate of Opinion is a Special on the US Presidential election. It contains the following articles:

• Commentary – When the American butterfly flaps its wings – Gulya Isyanova
  
• Policy brief – Barack Obama’s energy and environment policies – Paul Healy
  
• Policy brief – John McCain’s energy and environment policies – Emma Gurrey
  
• The next President’s energy policy: Will it meet the challenges of the future? – Paul Domjan

The Stockholm Network is delighted to introduce the latest discussion paper in our IP & Competition Programme. In this paper the Stockholm Network`s Director of Research, Dr Meir Pugatch, explores the nature, process and characteristics of technological innovation. Using real world examples from different sectors of the economy the paper analyses the close relationship and synergies which take place between innovation and the creation and uses of knowledge, as well as the role that IPRs play in this process.

The paper also looks at the broader theoretical issue of market-driven innovation versus practices based on central planning and compulsory use of knowledge (such as via compulsory licenses). It finds that, on the whole, the current market-driven innovation model is far from being `broken`. On the contrary, innovation is flourishing. From innovations that are based on collaborations, convergence, strategic alliances and standard-setting through to more traditional in-house R&D, the market today is more innovative than ever.

Nevertheless, the paper notes that, recently, some policy-making bodies in Europe and at the global level have embraced the notion that the innovation model needs `fixing`. The paper concludes that policy-makers should exercise caution when considering pursuing compulsory, non-market-driven models of innovation.

This tenth edition of Climate of Opinion focuses on the role of urban policy in energy and environmental issues and contains the following articles:

• Commentary – Surviving the urban jungle – Gulya Isyanova
  
• Victims or leaders? Cities and global climate policy – Dr James Keirstead
  
• The sustainability benefits of a curious approach to combat climate change – Gary Lawrence
  
• The role of cities in driving global climate policy – Mayor David Miller
  
• Microclimates – Top stories in energy and environment

In this paper the Stockholm Network`s David Torstensson and Dr Meir P. Pugatch discuss and analyse the pharmaceutical IP environment in Canada. The paper describes the changes that led Canada – which until the 1990s was an "outlier" among developed countries in terms of the level of protection provided to pharmaceutical IPRs – to go ahead and strengthen its pharmaceutical IP environment, making it much more aligned with the environments of other developed countries such as the US, the EU Member States and Japan. Still, the paper suggests that this shift has not yet been completed and that Canada is still undergoing some significant internal debates about the future of its pharmaceutical IP landscape, not least in the context of its judicial system.

This paper is the first part of a publication series under the banner of our initiative CEE Ahead: A vision for sustainable healthcare. CEE Ahead aims to put forward a new vision for healthcare in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).

The paper examines the transformation and reforms of Central and Eastern European (CEE) health care systems following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Taking the examples of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Romania it sketches the major success stories but also examines the missed opportunities and major backlashes against these reforms.

This edition of Know IP contains the following articles:

• Commentary – Land, knowledge and the space in between – is there a distinction between property rights and intellectual property rights? – Dr Meir Pugatch and Helen Disney
  
• Topic of the Month – More Italian than the Italians? Geographical indications and Parmesan – Savvas Parselias
  
• Experts’ Corner – Sittin’ in the dock with eBay – Benjamin May
  
• Views – The IP challenges of Web 2.0 – Gulya Isyanova
  
• Newsflashes – Top stories in the world of IP and Competition

This ninth edition of Climate of Opinion focuses on technology transfer and contains the following articles:

• Commentary – Arrested development: why tech transfer can be done better – Paul Domjan
  
• Can a better-informed technology transfer of renewable energy be achieved for developing countries? – Dr Judith Alazraque Cherni
  
• Climate change technologies: the new IP battleground – Helen Davison
  
• Publication – Carbon Scenarios: Blue Sky Thinking for a Green Future – Paul Domjan and Gulya Isyanova
  
• Microclimates – Top stories in energy and environment