Intellectual Property Pledges for COVID-19: A Scorecard
[Jorge Contreras] Broad public concern over the availability of equipment, diagnostics and therapies needed to address COVID-19 has led numerous companies and institutions to pledge their intellectual property (IP) to this cause on a compensation-free basis (some background on IP pledging can be found here and here). The following table and discussion, adapted from a longer paper forthcoming in the Utah Law Review, summarizes the more prominent of these in roughly chronological order. Click here for more.
See also: PIJIP Webinar – The Open COVID Pledge at One Year: Looking Back and Looking Ahead – April 28, 2021 | 12:30-3:30pm EDT. Registration and Speakers.
Ensuring Text and Data Mining: Remaining Issues With the EU Copyright Exceptions and Possible Ways Out
[Rossana Ducato and Alain Strowel] Abstract: …The importance of TDM has been understood by the European legislator, which has introduced two specifically tailored exceptions in the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive. After a critical analysis of the new provisions, the paper argues that they still present several flaws that risk to stifle AI developments in Europe. Thus, the contribution outlines an interpretative framework, based on the analysis of the infringement test, to rethink the rights of reproduction and extraction in line with the economic rationale of copyright and the database right. Click here for more.
New Paper Shows Data Exclusivity Linked to Higher Prices of Pharmaceutical Imports
[Mike Palmedo] Some studies that estimating the impact that trade agreements have had on medicine prices have found it to be small, as the effects take a long time to become fully apparent. Studies that have instead studied the effect of TRIPS-Plus rules required by trade agreements – such as patent term extensions, rules on the protection of test data – have often found significant impacts on prices or availability of medicines. Many of the existing studies have focused on one country, and/or on a few drugs. In a new working paper, I take another approach by focusing on one TRIPS-plus provision required by all US trade agreements and demonstrating that the provision has been associated with faster inflation of imported pharmaceutical import prices in a set of 42 countries. Click here for more.
Making International] Intellectual Property and Trade Regimes Work to Address the Health Response to COVID-19
[Brook Baker] Abstract: The world was unprepared for COVID-19 despite other recent coronavirus outbreaks and despite multiple warnings from the World Health Organization (WHO) and others. Although there was an initial sharing of research among scientists and an unleashing of significant public, charitable, and private funding to develop, test, and expand manufacturing capacity of new COVID-19-related medicines, vaccines, and diagnostics, the status quo of exclusive rights ownership and commercial control by the multinational biopharmaceutical industry continues unabated. Existing intellectual property rules that allow private entities to maintain monopoly rights over the development, clinical testing, regulatory approval, pricing, supply, and distribution of essential medical products have not been altered. Click here for more.
World Trade Organization’s Export-Oriented Compulsory Licensing Mechanism: Foreseen Policy Concern for Africa to Mitigate the COVID-19 Pandemic
[Muhammad Z. Abbas] Abstract: Africa has a history of grappling with outbreaks and high prevalence of disease. It currently confronts COVID-19 which is escalating because of local community transmission of the disease. Poorly resourced health systems in Africa are ill-prepared for the surging number of COVID-19 cases. This paper emphasizes that in the current battle against COVID-19, policymakers should not lose sight of future policy challenges. Click here for more.
Communia Analysis of the Croation Proposal to Implement the New Education Exception
[Timotej Kotnik Jesih and Maja Bogataj Jančič] In the last months, a few governments shared their proposals to adapt their national laws to the requirements of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive, including to Article 5 of the Directive, which sets new minimum standards for the digital and cross-border use of copyright materials in education. Similarly to what we did with the Dutch, the German and the Hungarian proposals, we will keep tracking how these countries are proposing to implement this mandatory exception to copyright for educational purposes. Today, we provide an overview of the Croatian proposal. Click here for more.
Letter to the USTR and EU Trade Commissioner: Support Pandemic Recovery for Least Developed Countries
[Boston University GDP Center] On April 22nd, 2021, members of the Boston University Global Development Policy Center’s Working Group on Trade Treaties and Access to Medicines called upon United States Trade Representative, Katherine Tai and the European Union Trade Commissioner, Valdis Dombrovskis with an urgent request to extend the transition period for Least Developed Countries (LDCs) under Article 66.1 of the World Trade Organization’s Trade Related Aspects of International Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement. Click here for the full letter.
The Government of Canada Launches Consultation on a Modern Copyright Framework for Online Intermediaries
[Government of Canada] The Government of Canada is committed to ensuring the Copyright Act remains consistent with modern realities and that revenues of web giants are shared fairly with Canadian creators. Building on the stakeholder engagement and committee reports from the 2019 Parliamentary Review of the Copyright Act and other research, the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Canadian Heritage, and the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, are launching a public consultation today on Canada’s copyright framework for online intermediaries to make sure it reflects the evolving digital world. Click here for more.
