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Latin American Generics Association ALIFAR Announces Engagement in Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) Advocacy Against TRIPS-plus IP Policies

Posted by Sean Flynn on May 16, 2013 No Responses »

May 162013

SourceL AU Dept. of For. Affairs & Trade

Buenos Aires (May 16, 2013).

ALIFAR, the Latin American generic pharmaceutical association, released a press release today announcing that it “decided to collectively support their associations from Chile, Mexico and Peru during TPP negotiations.” The announcement follows a three day meeting in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. The release recounts that ALIFAR has issued a statement encouraging the Chilean, Mexican and Peruvian Governments “not to accept new and higher IP rights protection and enforcement standards that erode TRIPS’ flexibilities.” The statement continues:

“In that context, ALIFAR will join efforts with those advocacy groups sharing its strategic vision about intellectual property, access to medicines and public health.” Continue reading »

How Listing Ukraine as a Priority Foreign Country in Special 301 Violates the World Trade Organization Agreements

Posted by Sean Flynn on May 13, 2013 No Responses »

May 132013

In this year’s Special 301 report, the United States Trade Representative listed Ukraine as a “Priority Foreign Country” (aka PFC), triggering a 30 day countdown to initiate an investigation under Section 301 of the Trade Act to determine trade sanctions. 19 USC 2412(2)(A). This is only the second time that the U.S. has threatened a WTO-member country with sanctions as a PFC. And thus it is an appropriate time to ask what restrictions the World Trade Organization places on the operation of the Special 301 program. As described more fully below, any sanction of Ukraine, including removal of General System of Preferences (GSP) benefits, would likely violate WTO rules. Indeed, the listing of Ukraine as a PFC, and the more general operation of “watch lists” threatening sanctions for intellectual property matters, could be challenged under the WTO even prior to any sanction actually going into effect. Continue reading »

Special 301 and Access to Medicines under the Obama Administration

Posted by Sean Flynn on May 1, 2013 1 Response »

May 012013

sean - 150x150 The first Obama campaign for the presidency reached out to access to medicines campaigners to join the broad coalition he was building to gain the presidency. In response to their concerns, he declared that his presidency would “break the stranglehold that a few big drug and insurance companies have on these life-saving drugs,” and pledged support for “the rights of sovereign nations to access quality-assured, low-cost generic medication to meet their pressing public health needs under the WTO’s Declaration on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).” The Obama administration has now produced five Special 301 reports cataloging its policies on intellectual property and access to medicines. In the first three reports, as detailed below, the administration received low marks on its commitments from public health campaigners. Continue reading »

What is Special 301? A Historical Primer

Posted by Sean Flynn on May 1, 2013 No Responses »

May 012013

One of the diverse sources from which the international intellectual property regime emanates is an annual unilateral adjudication of foreign government trade policies by the United States under the so-called “Special 301” program and report. For over two decades the report has functioned as one of the primary sticks for the U.S.’s “carrot and stick” approach to international intellectual property policy. The report weighs countries’ compliance with intellectual property standards and enforcement efforts—both those embedded in existing treaties and those the U.S. would like to see adopted. It threatens and rewards countries via inclusion on or delisting from its annual ‘Watch List’ (“WL”) and ‘Priority Watch List’ (“PWL”), and has the power to implement unilateral trade sanctions when U.S. demands are not met. The construction of the report requires the administration to take decisions on which countries it views as having “adequate” intellectual property protection. The report is thus a key expression of the trade policy of the U.S. in intellectual property matters. Continue reading »

Human Rights and Access to Medicines Cases

Posted by Sean Flynn on April 27, 2013 No Responses »

Apr 272013

This Friday I attended a workshop at Yale Law School Global Health Justice Partnership to discuss the end product of a clinical project exploring human rights strategies to promote access to medicine. (This is a long term interest of mine. PIJIP held a conference and workshop on IP and Human Rights in February, I teach classes on the subject at WCL and the University of Pretoria,and helped with a symposium issue of the WCL Health Law Brief). Continue reading »

Statement on the Supreme Court Decision in Kirtsaeng and the U.S. Position on Exhaustion in the TPP

Posted by Sean Flynn on March 19, 2013 No Responses »

Mar 192013

The Supreme Court decided the long anticipated Kirtsaeng case today, upholding an interpretation that the first sale (exhaustion) rule in the U.S. allows the parallel importation of copyrighted products voluntarily released in other countries with the right holder’s consent.

The case helps reveal how the USTR (with approval by officials at the Copyright Office) uses trade agreements to take controversial positions in international law while explaining publicly that all the language they are negotiating in secret complies with US law. Often, the trade language complies with only one contested interpretation of what US law might be, as here. Continue reading »

Flynn Testifies in Special 301 Hearing

Posted by Sean Flynn on February 20, 2013 No Responses »

Feb 202013

American University Washington College of Law Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property (PIJIP) Associate Director Sean Flynn testified at today’s Special 301 hearing at the United States Trade Representative’s office. This blog summarizes some of the comments made to the 301 Committee and some additional reflections on the day. Continue reading »

Colombian Court Strikes FTA Copyright Bill: “Ley Lleras 2″

Posted by Sean Flynn on January 24, 2013 No Responses »

Jan 242013

Our Colombian Colleagues Marcela Palacio Puera, Andres Izquierdo, and Carolina Botero have drawn our attention to the breaking news that the Colombian Constitutional Court has struck down the Free Trade Agreement Copyright implementation bill known as “Lley Lleras 2” on procedural grounds. Continue reading »

Opening of the Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest

Posted by Sean Flynn on December 15, 2012 No Responses »

Dec 152012

The Second Global Congress on IP and the Public Interest begins today at 9:00 in Rio de Janeiro (6:00 EST). The link for the webcast of the public session of the Global Congress will be at http://fgv.br/aovivo/

You can find the agenda of speakers at: http://www.global-congress.org/

Germany’s Bad, and Illegal, Proposal to Require “Ancillary Copyright” Licensing of Internet Search

Posted by Sean Flynn on November 27, 2012 2 Responses »

Nov 272012

German news publishers are trying to require licensing fees to be paid to them for indexing their content by search companies through a proposal that may move forward in the German Parliament later this week.

This ‘ancillary copyright‘ (text here) law would require search engines and other purveyors of information on the internet (but not publishers of “journalistic citations”) to pay licensing fees for showing headlines and snippets of news articles. The proposal is bad policy, and also appears illegal under international law. Continue reading »

Statement on Implementation of US-Panama Free Trade Agreement

Posted by Sean Flynn on October 22, 2012 No Responses »

Oct 222012

The latest example of the serious threats of U.S. free trade agreement implementation to balanced intellectual property systems in developing countries was announced by USTR today. In an exchange of letters, the U.S. has blessed the implementation of Panama’s FTA commitments on copyright that threaten the business models of some of the largest U.S. corporations – from Google to Ebay, Facebook to Netflix. Just prior to the FTA implementation, Panama sought to comply with the FTA requirements on copyright by passing a new law creating copyright protections on temporary storage on the internet, with no protection for the kind of buffer copies necessary for popular and fully licensed streaming services, while at the same time removing its broad fair use rights and adding a provision that all limitations and exceptions in its law must be strictly interpreted. Continue reading »

Notes from American University Panels on IP, Trade and Development

Posted by Sean Flynn on October 19, 2012 No Responses »

Oct 192012

On October 16, the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property held the event “IP, Trade and Development,” with speakers from academia, the government, the biotech industry, and DC-based nonprofits. My notes are below.

The webcast, presentations, and participant bios are available here.

Prof. Jerome Reichman (Duke Law School) told the audience he is troubled by developing countries’ reliance on multilateral forums for inspiration or permission to innovate in their laws. Developing countries need to lead – to develop laws in their own interest that take maximum advantage of flexibilities in TRIPS. For instance, countries could enact strong limitations and exceptions for the blind without waiting for WIPO to make a treaty on the matter. One example of a developing country leading the way on flexible TRIPS-implementation is India in the area of medicine patents. Continue reading »

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