Making Sense of South Africa’s New Copyright Bill and U.S. Trade Threats

[Sean Flynn] The Office of the US Trade Representative has announced a review of South Africa’s eligibility for Generalised System of Preferences benefits. The office took the step after it was petitioned by the International Intellectual Property Alliance, a private sector coalition representing large US entertainment companies. At issue is South Africa’s Copyright Amendment Bill, which has been waiting for the South African president’s signature for eight months. Charl Blignaut asked Professor Sean Flynn and lawyer Jonathan Band to explain the issues. Click here for more.

See also:

  • Breaking the Impasse – Video from the Wits University Copyright Indaba. Link.
  • Ahmed Bawa. Universities South Africa’s Position on Copyright Bill In Line With Its Mission. Link.

Medicines and Intellectual Property: 10 Years of the WHO Global Strategy

[Germán Velásquez] Abstract: The negotiations of the Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property (IGWG) (2006-2008), undertaken by the Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO), were the result of a deadlock in the 2006 World Health Assembly where the Member States were unable to reach an agreement on what to do with the 60 recommendations in the report on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property submitted to the Assembly in the same year by a group of experts designated by the Director-General of the WHO. Click here for more.

Implementing the New EU Press Publishers’ Right

[Teresa Nobre] Last week, we launched our Guidelines for the Implementation of the DSM Directive. This is part of a series of blogposts dedicated to the various provisions analysed in our guidelines. Today we give a quick explanation of the new exclusive right granted to EU press publishers by the new Copyright Directive. Click here for more.

Novartis Drops the Kymriah Patent That Was Opposed by Public Eye

[Public Eye Press Release] Novartis has relinquished a patent on its personalised cancer treatment Kymriah in reaction to the opposition filed by Public Eye and Médecins du Monde (Doctors of the World). This volte-face confirms that the patent should never have been granted in the first place, given that the underlying technology is not novel. It also questions the validity of other patents on Kymriah and weakens the monopoly position of the Swiss giant in future price reviews. Click here for more on PublicEye.ch.

Patents of Introduction and the Spanish Innovation System

[Patricio Sáiz] Abstract: …In this paper we will reflect on the design of the Spanish Innovation System, especially in one of its institutional aspects (the patent system), in order to understand the real role and function of a curious legal process the “patent of introduction”, which in practice promoted and permitted anyone to protect foreign third-person technologies in order to implement them locally, providing they were not already established. Although this legal practice represents a very clear declaration of intentions concerning the innovation policy and despite its existence in other patent systems in lagging countries, economic and technology historians have paid little or no attention to the subject. Click here for more.