WEBINAR – Sanya Samtani: The Right to Education and the South African Copyright Amendment Bill

[October 30, 2020 | 10:00am EST] Sanya Samtani will present a paper describing the constitutional implications of compliance with international law and the binding international obligations incumbent upon South Africa in respect of copyright and international human rights law. Her paper argues that the Bill of Rights acts as a magnet, compelling all organs of state to give greater normative weight to those international obligations that map onto the Bill of Rights as compared to those that do not. It explains how the provisions of the CAB that are specifically tailored to enable access to educational materials for all are not only permitted under South Africa’s international copyright obligations but are required by the Bill of Rights and South Africa’s international human rights obligations using the magnet analysis. Click here for more.

Other upcoming webinars:

  • November 6: Carys Craig and Bob Tarantino – COVID-19 Lessons for Culture, Learning, and Copyright Law. Link. 
  • November 15: Jean-Frédéric Morin – Presentation of the TRIPS+ Preferential Trade Agreement Dataset. Link. 

Deconstructing Moderna’s Covid-19 Patent Pledge

[Jorge Contreras] On October 8, Cambridge-based biotech company Moderna, Inc., a leading contender in the race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, publicly pledged not to enforce its COVID-19 related patents against “those making vaccines intended to combat the pandemic.” …In the high-stakes market for COVID-19 vaccines, it is worth considering the full range of factors that might motivate a private firm to relinquish valuable intellectual property rights for the public good. A better understanding of these factors could help policymakers to secure additional pledges from firms that have not yet volunteered their intellectual property in the fight against the pandemic. Click here for more.

Patent Analysis for Medicines and Biotherapeutics in Trials to Treat Covid-19

[Srividya Ravi] This report provides an analysis of patents covering medicines in trials to treat COVID-19. The aim of the report is to support national patent offices and interested parties in developing countries with information that can serve as guidance for the examination of the claims contained in relevant patents or patent applications. Click here for more.

Conflicting Interests, Competing Perspectives and Policy Incoherence: Covid-19 Highlights the Significance of the UN High-Level Panel Report on Access to Medicines

[Muhammad Abbas] …The UN High-Level Panel Report on Access to Medicines is a great help in identifying and articulating the nature of the public policy problems faced by countries in response to COVID-19. After analysing the Report and its key recommendations, this paper evaluates the diverging responses to the Report which clearly highlight the conflicting interests of stakeholders. This article concludes that WTO Member States need to revive the spirit of the Doha Declaration which was arguably the best multilateral effort to accommodate the conflicting interests. Click here for more.

A Taxonomy of Training Data: Disentangling the Mismatched Rights, Remedies, and Rationales for Restricting Machine Learning

[Benjamin Sobel] Abstract: This chapter addresses a crucial problem in artificial intelligence: many applications of machine learning depend on unauthorized uses of copyrighted data. Scholars and lawmakers often articulate this problem as a deficiency in copyright’s exceptions and limitations, reasoning that legal uncertainties surrounding today’s AI stem from the lack of a clear exception or limitation, and that such an exception or limitation could resolve the current predicament. In fact, the current predicament is a product of two systemic features of the copyright regime — the absence of formalities and the low threshold of copyright-able originality — combined with a technological environment that turns routine activities into acts of authorship. Equilibrating the economy for human expression in the AI age requires a solution that focuses not only on exceptions to existing copyrights, but also on the aforementioned doctrinal features that determine the ownership and scope of copyright entitlements at their inception. Click here for more.

LDCs Call for Extension of Transition Period to Implement TRIPS

[D. Ravi Kanth] In their fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the poorest countries have called for an extension of the transition period for 12 years, starting from 1 July 2021, to implement the World Trade Organization’s TRIPS Agreement. At the WTO’s TRIPS Council meeting on 16 October, Chad, on behalf of the least-developed countries (LDC) group, presented a strong proposal as to why the poorest countries would need an extension of the transition period of 12 years under Article 66.1 of the TRIPS Agreement. Click here for more on twn.my.

Open Education and Artificial Scarcity in Hard Times

[Rory Mir] The sudden move to remote education by universities this year has forced the inevitable: the move to an online education. While most universities won’t be fully remote, having course materials online was already becoming the norm before the COVID-19 pandemic, and this year it has become mandatory for millions of educators and students. As academia recovers from this crisis, and hopefully prepares for the next one, the choices we make will send us down one of two paths. We can move towards a future of online education which replicates the artificial scarcity of traditional publishing, or take a path which fosters an abundance of free materials by embracing the principles of open access and open education. Click here for more.