[Ip-health] Who is SIGWatch and where does it get its info on patents cases?

[Joana Ramos]

I recently came across the website of SIGWatch, due to its commentaries
on the Novartis patents cases.

SIGWatch ( which does not explain on the website what the acronym SIG
stands for, one assumes it may be the common moniker for "special
interest group" ) describes it self as follows:

http://www.sigwatch.com/
>
> SIGWatch tracks 900+ major activist groups worldwide and reports on
> their activities, plans and campaigns.
>
>
> SIGWatch keeps you up to date with all the hot issues and the 'micro'
> issues, the launch of new campaigns and important developments in
> current ones. It tells you which groups are campaigning and why, the
> corporations, financial institutions, governments, regulators and
> other agencies they are targeting, the arguments and tactics they are
> deploying, and their successes and failures.
> Remember, SIGWatch is NOT a media monitoring service.
>
> Nearly all our reports come from monitoring the activists themselves.
> Because we are not relying on media coverage, SIGWatch invariably
> anticipates press reports, and points you to primary sources. We can
> monitor in all the important NGO languages, including English, French,
> Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish,
> Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Chinese, Japanese and Thai. We hand write
> all reports - you don't get a mass of bot-generated web links.

They have a new monthly SIGWatch CSR service, which covers the areas of:

Climate change and energy
Mining
Chemicals
Biotechnology
Healthcare and pharmaceuticals
Food, agriculture and distribution
Forests

About drug patents cases, the current news sidebar on their website says:
>
> Pharmaceuticals, patents, legal, financial institutions On the eve of
> Novartis=92s AGM, Oxfam claimed the company is =93beginning to lose the
> battle=94 to protect its reputation from criticism over its patent
> rights case in India. It cited as evidence the views of Interfaith
> Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR, U.S.) and FairPensions (UK)
> (FairPensions is a lobby group with links to Oxfam). Oxfam said nearly
> 400,000 people have signed a petition criticising Novartis. Meanwhile
> BUKO Pharma-Campaign (Germany), linked to Health Action International,
> claimed Boehringer Ingelheim is threatening the supply of Nevirapine
> syrup, used to treat HIV-infected children, by applying for a patent
> in India, despite in 2006 denying it had done so.

Although they now offer free headline alerts, to read the entire stories
however, one must subscribe to SIGWatch, and information sources are not
stated in the summaries. Annual subscriptions range from about 1500-1770
Euros, and with the CSR reports going for an extra 835 Euros, all plus
VAT. US subscribers are instructed to add Virginia sate sales tax, but
the contact. address is in Germany. The site is registered to a Robert
Flood at an address in Freiburg, Germany.

Apparently SIGWatch is consulting business, as they also offer training
programs and research services, including:

> We are often asked to give talks to industry associations and in-house
> groups on aspects of contemporary NGOs and activism. Subjects have
> ranged from the global dominance of European NGOs, and comparisons of
> leading US and European campaign groups, to the psychology of
> activism, and how corporates become activist targets.
and
>
> In addition to our subscription newsletters, we offer a wide range of
> bespoke research services, such as issues backgrounders, activist
> group and staff profiles, multicountry situation reports, and issue
> evaluation and assessment.


Specialty Activist Strategies Workshops will be held next week and in
April in Brussels and London, respectively, with another scheduled later
for Washington DC .

If anyone knows more about this company, pls. share. There does not seem
to be much info on it on the web via search engines. I can imagine that
this group also actively seeks to join private online discussion groups.

--
Joana Ramos, MSW
Cancer Resources & Advocacy
7303 23rd Ave. NE
Seattle, WA  98115
206-229-2420
http://ramoslink.info/