USTR has sent witnesses the schedule for its Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership hearing on May 29-30. There will be 61 witnesses over the two days. Each witness will have 5 minutes to give remakrks, and 5 minutes for Q&A.
Most of the civil society groups that work on intellectual property issues will testify on Wednesday afternoon. Most of the industry groups that frequently weigh in on IP matters are scheduled for Thursday afternoon.
Click here for the full schedule.
Representatives Waxman, Lee, DeLauro, Schakowsky, and Bass have sent a letter to Acting U.S. Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis supporting a proposal by Haiti to allow poor countries extra time to enact stronger rules on patent, copyrights, and other forms of intellectual property.
The issue involves the implementation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), which requires countries to adopt certain intellectual property standards. For instance, the TRIPS Agreement requires 20 year patents on all inventions (including medicines) and long copyrights on most works (including textbooks). TRIPS rules give IP owners the ability to set monopoly prices for goods, which can be unaffordable for many, especially in poor countries. Therefore, Least Developed Countries (LDCs) were granted extra time to implement TRIPS when the WTO was established, and this transition period was subsequently extended. Continue reading »
Carolina Botero has sent us an English translation of the new copyright legislation that was recently proposed in Colombia to replace the controversial “Ley Lleras 2.0″ law that was struck down earlier last year by the Constitutional Court. The law is meant intended to bring Colombia into compliance with the IP provisions i its FTA with the United States, but public interest groups have warned that it expands the scope copyright beyond what is required, and contains confining language on limitations and exceptions, and includes criminal penalties for DRMs that would apply to a very broad definition of for-’profit’ activities.
The English translation is available here. The original version in Spanish is available here.
For analysis of the bill see blogs by Carolina Botero and Andres Izquierdo.
Trade negotiators are meeting in Lima, Peru this week for the seventeenth round of talks on the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). The negotiations are reaching the final stages as an October deadline approaches, and the most controversial topics have been pushed to the end.
The intersection of intellectual property and access to medicines is one such controversial area. Advocates for access to medicines have warned that many intellectual property provisions sought by the United States will delay the introduction of generic medicines, thereby keeping the costs of medicines high. These provisions include extensions of patent terms, extension of patentable subject matter, and data exclusivity. This blog 1) gives a quick overview of data exclusivity, 2) points to data showing how it raised drug prices in three countries where it was implemented to meet trade obligations, 3) gives a note about the questionable link between exclusivity and investment, and 4) explores alternatives to data exclusivity and limitations on data exclusivity from previous trade agreements. Continue reading »
Today at 2pm EST, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet will hold the first hearing to address copyright reform since the announcement by Chairman Goodlatte of a comprehensive review of U.S. copyright law. Prepared witness statements are available, and the hearing webcast will be up on the hearing’s webpage. Continue reading »
By last Friday, 347 comments had been submitted to the US Trade Representative in response to its Request for Comments on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Agreement (TTIP). Numerous comments addressed intellectual property concerns (and many suggested that IPRs should be left out of the agreement all together). Also, many comments highlighted the need for greater transparency in TTIP negotiations than has been the norm in other trade negotiations, such as ACTA. The full docket will be made available here, though currently not all of the comments have been uploaded. Below are excerpts from some of the comments made that referred to copyright provisions that may be under negotiation. Continue reading »
[Forthcoming paper, Summer 2013, Currents International Trade Law Journal] Abstract: Countries may choose various methods of data protection in order to comply with the TRIPS Agreement. Policymakers should consider the effects of data exclusivity on prices and investment relative to other types of data protection. The data presented here suggest there is no relationship between whether or not a country has data exclusivity, and the amount of investment in the country by the pharmaceutical industry. On the other hand, empirical evidence in previous papers has shown that data exclusivity does drive prices higher.
Full paper available on SSRN at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2259797
Today the U.S. Trade Representative issued a Federal Register Notice seeking “comments from the public on all issues related to Japan’s participation in the TPP negotiations [and] comments on negotiations to address certain non-tariff measures of Japan that will be conducted bilaterally in parallel to the TPP negotiations and addressed by the conclusion of the TPP negotiations.”
The deadline for comments is June 9. Continue reading »
This is a quick note about one of the items in this year’s Special 301 Report, released by USTR this morning. The report attacks the recent Indian Novartis ruling in unusually direct language. The ruling upheld the denial of a patent on Glivec for failing to meet patentability requirements under Section 3(d) of the Indian Patents Act, (a longer explanation is here). The Special 301 report has this to say on the matter: Continue reading »
Pressure on Capitol Hill for Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) is growing.
TPA – called “fasttrack” in the 1990s when it was used to negotiate NAFTA – allows the executive branch to negotiate trade agreements that Congress cannot amend during the ratification process. It also sets procedural rules under which trade agreements are negotiated, and the objectives of the United States for the outcomes of trade negotiations. Continue reading »
Today House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte announced an upcoming review of U.S. copyright law: “the House Judiciary Committee will hold a comprehensive series of hearings on U.S. copyright law in the months ahead. The goal of these hearings will be to determine whether the laws are still working in the digital age. I welcome all interested parties to submit their views and concerns to the Committee. I welcome all interested parties to submit their views and concerns to the Committee.” Continue reading »
Trade Ministers of the eleven countries negotiating the Trans Pacific Partnership held a side meeting at the APEC summit in Indonesia last week. They issued a statement in which they agreed to keep working on outstanding issues (including IP), and indicated that Japan is closer to joining the negotiations. Continue reading »