350+ Civil Society Groups and Individuals Endorse Letter to WIPO: IP Should Not Hinder Efforts to Fight Covid-19 & Its Consequences
Over 100 organizations and 200 individuals have endorsed a civil society letter to WIPO Director General Francis Gurry urging the organization to “take a clear stand in favour of ensuring that intellectual property regimes are a support, and not a hindrance, to efforts to tackle both the Coronavirus outbreak and its consequences.” The letter posted in English and Spanish, and it is still open for signatures. Click here for more.
Open Letter to the World Health Organization (WHO) and Its Member States on the Proposal by Costa Rica to Create a Global Pool for Rights in the Data, Knowledge and Technologies Useful in the Prevention, Detection and Treatment of the Coronavirus/COVID-19 Pandemic
[Civil Society Letter] We are writing to ask the WHO and its Member States to support the proposal by Costa Rica for the creation of a global pooling mechanism for rights in the data, knowledge and technologies useful in the prevention, detection and treatment of the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic… Costa Rica correctly saw this as a pool with a diverse set of rights, including those relating to patents on inventions and designs, regulatory test data, research data including outcomes, know-how, cell lines, copyrights and blueprints for manufacturing, as these rights relate to equipment, diagnostic tests, devices, medicines, vaccines, and other medical tools. Such a pool would allow for competitive and accelerated production of needed COVID-19 technologies, and expand our capacity to address the need for affordable products for all. Click here for more on kieonline.org.
South Centre Letter to WTO, WHO, and WIPO on Covid-19 and the TRIPS Art. 73 Exception for “Essential Security Interests”
[Carlos Correa] …Access to affordable medicines, vaccines and diagnostics and to medical equipment, and to the technologies to produce them, is indispensable to treat COVID-19. Such technologies should be broadly available to manufacture and supply what is needed to address the disease… In this connection, I wish to recall that in accordance to the ‘Security Exceptions’ contained in Article 73(b) of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement), any World Trade Organization Member can take “any action which it considers necessary for the protection of its essential security interests”. The use of this exception will be fully justified to procure medical products and devices or to use the technologies to manufacture them as necessary to address the current health emergency. Click here for more.
Patents and Coronavirus – The Right to Repair
[Jorge Contreras] In March, 2020, two engineers in Brescia, Italy used a desktop 3D printing machine to fabricate needed replacement valves for more than 100 ventilator machines being used to treat coronavirus patients at a local hospital. News reports claim that the ventilator valves fabricated in Italy for a cost of about 1 Euro each were previously sold by the manufacturer for 10,000 Euro each. There is some debate about what happened next, but early news feeds reported that a parts manufacturer threatened to sue the engineers for infringing patents on the replacement valve. While the existence of the threat and the patents remains murky, the incident sparked legal commentary regarding the risk that volunteers fabricating parts for lifesaving devices, and the hospitals that use them, could be liable for patent infringement. Click here for more.
Online Learning and Copyright Exceptions for Education
[Mike Palmedo and Margarita Gorospe] As schools have closed in response to the Coronavirus 19 pandemic, interest in online learning has increased dramatically. Online learning often involves distributing copyrighted works online, so its governed by copyright limitations that vary widely from one country to the next. Some countries allow teachers, parents, and/or students to share works or parts of works online for educational purposes. Other countries do not, or place different types of conditions on the limitation. Click here for more.
Creative Commons Interview with Dr. Lucie Guibault: What Scientists Should Know About Open Access
[Interview by Victoria Heath and Brigitte Vézina] …When time is of the essence, like now with the COVID-19 pandemic, scientific research results must be made available as soon as possible so that other scientists, policymakers and the general population can rely on sound scientific data in their decision-making process. Contrary to the traditional publishing model, which puts scientific publications behind a paywall or puts a 6 to 12-month embargo on self-archiving (depositing scholarly research in an online repository or open archive), open access allows for immediate, worldwide access to scientific and scholarly publications. Click here for more.
Eighteen Years After Doha: An Analysis of the Use of Public Health TRIPS Flexibilities in Africa
[Yousuf A Vawda and Bonginkosi Shozi] Abstract: As we observe the 18th anniversary of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, it is appropriate to take stock of intellectual property developments and endeavour to present a comprehensive account of the situation in the African continent in respect of the implementation of TRIPS flexibilities, specifically those regarding access to medicines. This research paper provides an overview of the extent to which selected African countries have adopted legal and policy frameworks with regard to TRIPS flexibilities, examines the actual use of these flexibilities in enabling access to medicines in those countries, and suggests some recommendations for optimising the use of the flexibilities in pursuing public health imperatives. Click here for more.
