InfoJustice Roundup – May 20, 2019

A Solid Start: Asia-Pacific Government Representatives Stress Need for International Action for Libraries at Singapore Workshop

[International Federation of Library Associations] The first of three WIPO regional workshops focusing on the copyright needs of libraries, as well as archives, museums, education and research, took place in Singapore on 29-30 April. The meeting saw broad consensus that business-as-usual was not an option, and international action was necessary. Click here for more.

Note: The next WIPO Regional meetings will be held in Nairobi, Kenya (12-13 June) and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (4-5 July). Registration for the Kenya meeting is here. 

TODAY @ 4pm EST: Webinar on NAFTA 2.0 and Access to Medicines

How will the recently-concluded United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) impact access to affordable medicines? The USMCA – the renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement (also commonly referred to as NAFTA 2.0) – incorporates many of the harmful provisions from the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), including patent provisions that were suspended by the remaining Parties following the withdrawal of the US. It goes even further than the TPP in extending the exclusivities for biologics to ten years, an unprecedented TRIPS-plus measure. Beyond the intellectual property chapter, multiple other chapters and provisions of the USMCA also have implications for access to affordable, safe and effective medicines. Click here for more.

Questions and Answers About the South African Copyright Amendments Bill

[Nontando Tusi] Our Coalition supports the Bill for a number of reasons. The copyright law in South Africa dates back to 1978, is extremely outdated, and does not address the digital age in which we now operate. Bill promotes three rights which are fundamental to our different stakeholders, namely the right to earn, the right to own and the right to create. Click here for more.

Chile, New Zealand and Singapore Launch Digital Economy Partnership (DEPA) Talks

[Mike Palmedo] The trade ministers from Chile, New Zealand and Singapore have announced a new set of trade negotiations at this month’s APEC meeting – the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (“DEPA”). Their statement says “The DEPA seeks to deepen and strengthen cooperation in digital areas, establish new international approaches for digital trade issues, and explore new frontiers in the digital economy, such as digital identities, e-payments, cross-border data flows and artificial intelligence.” Click here for more.

Ocasio-Cortez Grills CEO of Pharma Company Making Billions on Government-Patented HIV Drug

[Emily Kopp] Gilead CEO Daniel O’Day faced scathing questions at a House hearing Thursday, with Democrats demanding answers on how the drug manufacturer could charge $1,700 a month for an HIV prevention drug discovered through taxpayer-funded research. “How can Gilead do this? How can our system allow a company to take a drug treatment that was developed with taxpayer funds and abuse its monopoly to charge such astronomical prices?” Oversight and Reform Chairman Elijah E. Cummings asked at the top of the hearing. “This lifesaving treatment would not exist but for the research funded by the CDC and the NIH.” Click here for more on RollCall.com.

Exploring the Interfaces Between Big Data and Intellectual Property Law

[Daniel Gervais] Abstract: This article reviews the application of several IP rights (copyright, patent, sui generis database right, data exclusivity and trade secret) to Big Data. Beyond the protection of software used to collect and process Big Data corpora, copyright’s traditional role is challenged by the relatively unstructured nature of the non-relational (noSQL) databases typical of Big Data corpora. This also impacts the application of the EU sui generis right in databases. Misappropriation (tort-based) or anti-parasitic behaviour protection might apply, where available, to data generated by AI systems that has high but short-lived value. Copyright in material contained in Big Data corpora must also be considered. Click here for more. 

Several Ministers Of Health Speak Up For Drug Market Transparency, Lower Prices At WHA Side Event

[Catherine Saez] The room holding the high-level side event on transparency of pharmaceutical product markets was overflowing today, with dozens of people standing to hear the speakers – many of them ministers of health – reflecting the importance of the topic at the 72th World Health Assembly. Member state organisers and co-sponsors of the event, representing diverse levels of economic development all made a call for a change of game, more transparency in the pharmaceutical market, and the end of forced confidentiality of price negotiations between countries and drug companies. Click here for more on healthpolicy-watch.org.