WIPO and the US Copyright Office discussed how copyright laws impact Artificial Intelligence development
[Andres Izquierdo] On February 5, 2020, the U.S. Copyright Office and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) co-sponsored the event Copyright in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The full-day event took a seriously in-depth look at the current relationship between AI and copyright with regards to the requirement of eligibility for copyright protection, the challenges and considerations for using copyright-protected works to train a machine or to examine large data sets, and the future of AI and copyright policy. Click here for more.
Civil Society Letter to Indian Prime Minister,re: US-India FTA
[34 Civil society groups and individuals] … we are concerned with demands of the United States to do away with the price controls on medical devices as part of the ongoing negotiations on US India trade deal. We are also apprehensive of the US pressure on India, which has been exerted continuously and will surely intensify following the deal, for increased intellectual property (IP) protections through amendments to the IP Acts. In this regard, we note that the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, recently held a meeting with stakeholders to review India’s existing IP Acts. During the meeting participants from law firms representing their foreign multinational pharmaceutical companies have insisted on removing public interest safeguards in the Patents Act such as provisions restricting the scope of patentability, local working as a ground for granting of a compulsory license, pre-grant oppositions etc. Click here for more.
Policy Incoherence for Stagnation: How Richer Countries’ Position at WIPO Contradicts Their Commitments to the Rest of the World
[International Federation of Library Associations] … The European External Action Service runs many projects on education, culture and research. Yet in its position at WIPO, it works against these goals. For a start, blocking progress towards an international instrument removes a key impetus to carry out reforms that would allow key actors in culture, education and research to do their jobs in a digital age. Click here for more.
Chinese Court Rules that AI Article Has Copyright
[Andres Guadamuz] A court in the Chinese city of Shenzen has decided that an article that was written by an artificial intelligence program has copyright protection. The article was written by Tencent’s Dreamwriter AI Writing Robot, an internal code at the Chinese tech giant that produces half a million articles per year in subjects such as weather, finance, sport, and real estate. The program has been writing articles for various Tencent media outlets since 2015. The case involved the Shanghai Yingxun Technology Company, which copied and published one of the Dreamwriter authored articles, which prompted Tencent to sue for copyright infringement. The court sided with Tencent and ordered Yingxun to pay 1,500 yuan ($216 USD) in damages. Click here for more.
Time for New Pharmaceutical Innovation Models
[Ellen ‘t Hoen] … The coronavirus seems poised to join a lengthy list of health problems the industry turns its back on unless additional incentives are made available: antimicrobial resistance, pediatric medicines, medicines to treat diseases of the poor, new infectious diseases such as Ebola, neglected tropical diseases, and rare diseases. Should the public allow them to do so? After all, the billions this industry rakes in every year is extracted from public sources: in low-income countries from out-of-pocket payments for drugs; in middle- and high-income countries mostly from social health-insurance schemes and taxes. Patients overpay for existing medicines because they expect something in return. The privatization of public resources implies a social responsibility for industry to develop new treatments and vaccines when needed. But the world lacks a mechanism to make this happen when industry refuses for lack of a blockbuster profit prospect. The inability to do so is becoming a detriment to public health. Click here for more on Medicines Law and Policy.
See also: Grace Ren and Elaine Ruth Fletcher for Health Policy Watch. R&D Funding For Leading Infectious Diseases Reaches Record High; But Investments Plateau For Neglected Tropical Diseases. Link.
