‘CHALLENGING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY’ FOCUS OF UNU PANEL DISCUSSION ON 13 APRIL

Note to Correspondents

‘CHALLENGING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY’ FOCUS OF UNU PANEL DISCUSSION ON 13 APRIL

The United Nations University - Office at the United Nations, New York (UNU-ONY) and the United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and social Research and training centre on Innovation and Technology (UNU-MERIT) are organizing a panel discussion on “Challenging Intellectual Property: Access to Knowledge Issues in Open Source and Medicine”, on 13 April at 2:30 to 6 p.m. in Conference Room 6 at United Nations Headquarters.

The symposium will analyse the role of free/open source software and other collaborative models of knowledge production in economic development.  It will also assess the effectiveness of several alternative global financing mechanisms that have been proposed to boost health research and development, and broaden access to affordable drugs for the world’s poorest populations.

The speakers include:

-- Rishab Aiyer Ghosh, Senior Researcher, UNU-MERIT;

-- Louis-Dominique Ouédraogo, retiring Inspector, the United Nations Joint Inspection Unit;

-- Tim Hubbard, Head of Human Genome Analysis, the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, United Kingdom; and

-- Renato da Silveira Martini, Director-General, ITI (National Institute of IT, Brazil)

To attend, please register at www.ony.unu.edu/unuseminarregistration.shtml.

An agenda is available at www.merit.unu.edu/seminars/docs/NYAgenda.pdf.

Media representatives are cordially invited to attend the symposium (details at www.ony.unu.edu).  The speakers will also be available for advance interviews in New York on 12 and 13 April, and telephone interviews with international media can be arranged upon request.  Please use the contacts listed below to schedule a time.

For more information please contact:  at United Nations Headquarters, Louise Bergström, +1-212-963-6387; in North America, Terry Collins, +1-416-538-8712, +1-416-878-8712 (mobile); or in Europe: Wangu Mwangi (The Netherlands), +31-43-350-6365 and Ruediger Kuehr (Germany), +49-228-4228-5516

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For information media • not an official record