A Doha Declaration for Covid-19? Professor Calls for Positive Agenda at WIPO SCCR

[PIJIP] Covid-19 has forced schools and universities around the world to abruptly move online, necessitating the reproduction and sharing of works in the digital environment. Yet many nations’ copyright exceptions for education fail to protect user rights online. In his statement before the 40th World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), Professor Sean Flynn proposed a “Doha Declaration for Covid” to “explain and promote the current flexibilities in the international system, and encourage their expansive interpretation to fulfil human rights.” Click here for more.

15 Years and a Pandemic Later: Are We There Yet?

[Teresa Nobre] In our capacity of permanent observers of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), we are attending the 40th session of the Committee, which is taking place in a hybrid format of in-person and online participation from 16 to 20 November 2020. The following is the statement made on behalf of Communia on limitations and exceptions for educational and research institutions and for persons with other disabilities. “This Committee has been discussing the issue of copyright exceptions for almost 15 years. During this time, a number of studies were conducted and we learned that many countries fail to guarantee the right to use protected content for education, research and other legitimate purposes….” Click here for more.

Over 100 Civil Society Organisations Call on the European Parliament to Support Covid-19 WTO Waiver Proposal

[Médecins Sans Frontières] On 19 November 2020, more than 100 civil society organisations, including MSF Access Campaign, sent an open letter to European Parliament calling for support for India, South Africa, Eswatini and Kenya´s landmark proposal for a temporary waiver from certain intellectual property (IP) provisions under the Agreements on Trade-related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) for COVID-19 medical technologies. Click here for more.

See also: Reuters. Wealthy countries block COVID-19 drugs rights waiver at WTO. Link.

Balanced Copyright in RCEP

[Jonathan Band] The Regional Cooperation for Economic Partnership (RCEP), signed on November 15, 2020 by fifteen countries in the Asia Pacific region, includes language on copyright exceptions that builds on provisions that appeared in the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (CPTPP) and the Korea US Free Trade Agreement (KORUS). CPTPP is the successor to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), finalized in 2015. After President Trump withdrew the United States from TPP in 2017, the eleven remaining TPP countries entered into the CPTPP in 2018. The copyright exceptions language in CPTPP is identical to the copyright exceptions language in TPP. Click here for more.

Copyright Limits and Learning: Lessons from the Covid-19 Quarantine

[Carys Craig] When the Covid-19 pandemic swept across the world in early 2020, most educational institutions from Dublin to Delhi were forced to close their classroom doors and take their teaching online. Textbooks were abandoned in student lockers and library books left untouched on shelves. Teachers had to pivot to remote delivery methods to ensure that students could successfully complete the ill-fated semester. But amidst the rapid move to Zoom Rooms, Course Moodles, home-recorded lectures, and posted PDFs, copyright restrictions reared their heads, casting into doubt the legality of the online learning practices that had suddenly become nothing short of necessary. Click here for more.

Patent-Related Actions Taken in WTO Members in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

[Xiaoping We and Bassam Peter Khazin] Abstract: … This working paper provides an overview of the patent landscape of medical treatments and technologies related to COVID-19, and of the patent status of two investigational medical treatments: remdesivir and lopinavir/ritonavir. It then presents various patent-related actions taken by legislators, policymakers, industry sectors, and civil society organizations in WTO Members since the outbreak. Furthermore, it elaborates on patent-related policy options provided by the TRIPS Agreement, and WTO Members’ national implementation and utilization of these options in their response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Click here for more. 

NIH Should Publicly Report More Information about the Licensing of Its Intellectual Property

[U.S. Government Accountability Office] Federal research and inventions can contribute to the development of life-saving drugs, vaccines, and medical devices. One way this happens is that the National Institutes of Health licenses its intellectual property to private companies that have the resources to bring products to market. NIH received up to $2 billion in royalties from its contributions to 34 drugs sold from 1991-2019. But how does licensing support NIH’s public health mission? What other benefits—e.g., drug affordability, or increased innovation—do taxpayers get in return? We recommended that NIH make more information available about its intellectual property licensing. Click here for the full report.