Oct 10: Prof. Ruth L. Okediji to Deliver the 8th Annual Peter A. Jaszi Distinguished Lecture on Intellectual Property

[PIJIP] The American University Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property is pleased to announce that Professor Ruth Okediji will give the 8th Annual Peter A. Jaszi Distinguished Lecture on Intellectual Property on October 10, 2019, at 6pm. Okediji is the Jeremiah Smith, Jr, Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and Co-Director of the Berkman Klein Center. The lecture will be webcast live. Click here for more.

Oct 8-10: CREATe Symposium 2019

CREATe, the UK Copyright & Creative Economy Centre at the University of Glasgow, is organising three days of events, public lectures and workshops (the CREATe Symposium 2019) to mark the start of a number of ambitious projects (as well as the continuation of others!) that will occupy us for the next several years. In recognising the achievements of the many researchers who have contributed to CREATe projects it will set the agenda for meeting future challenges that the creative economy will face in an era of platform economy, algorithmic regulation, open science, new legislative proposals, copyright education, and the enduring value of copyright history. Click here for more.

Statement by Dr. Carlos Correa to the U.N. High-Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage

[Carlos Correa] As noted by the WHO, spending on pharmaceuticals represents “15 to 30% of health spending in transitional economies and 25 to 66% in developing countries. In most low income countries pharmaceuticals are the largest public expenditure on health after personnel costs and the largest household health expenditure.” It is indispensable, therefore, to implement policies that promote competitive markets for pharmaceuticals, particularly in the area of procurement, regulatory approvals (including biologicals) and intellectual property. Click here for more.

How To License Article 17? Exploring the Implementation Options for the New EU Rules on Content-Sharing Platforms

[Martin Husovec and João Quintais] Abstract: How can the EU Member States license Article 17 of the new Directive on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market? This is the central question that this paper addresses. To answer it, we first analyse the nature of the right included in Article 17. We argue that the nature of the right has a number of serious consequences for its licensing. Click here for more.

Civil Society Letter on Intellectual Property to RCEP Negotiators

[Sangeeta-Shashikant] We are concerned about TRIPS-plus proposals concerning intellectual property enforcement. Intellectual property are “private” rights, to be enforced by the IP holder. However, we note with concern that there are a number of proposals shifting the burden of enforcement onto the government and according greater enforcement rights in favour of the IP holder at the expense of equity, rights of third parties and public interests. Click here for more.

The Right to Authorship

[Yamile Socolovsky] Education International’s decision to encourage discussion of an International Treaty concerning the exceptions and limitations to copyright for educational and research activities is both timely and necessary. The obstacles imposed on these activities by the excessively restrictive regulations in this area become remarkably difficult to overcome in the current context, because one aspect of the commercialisation of education and research involves the commercialisation of intellectual and artistic production, which represents a source of profit for an increasingly concentrated business sector. Click here for more.

Copyright as an Obstacle or an Enabler? A European Perspective on Text and Data Mining and Its Role in the Development of AI Creativity

[Eleonora Rosati] Abstract: Text and data mining (TDM) may be performed in a variety of fields and for different purposes. Among other things, TDM techniques may be used to ‘train’ Artificial Intelligence (AI), also for the purpose of AI-driven creativity. In this context, copyright restrictions might be in place, even if copies made of pre-existing content are only used internally and are instrument to the creation of something ‘new’. Recently, in the context of the Directive 2019/790 on copyright in the Digital Single Market, the EU legislature introduced two new mandatory exceptions for TDM. Click here for more.

SPARC Releases Connect OER Annual Report for 2018-2019

[Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition] SPARC is pleased to release our 2018-2019 Connect OER Annual Report, which offers insights about OER activities across North America. This year’s report examines the current state of OER activities featuring data from 132 institutions in the U.S. and Canada. Our intent is that these insights will help inform SPARC members, open education advocates, and the library community about current trends, best practices, and the collective impact being achieved through OER at participating institutions. Click here for more.

Pharmaceutical ‘Pay-for-Delay’ Reexamined: A Dwindling Practice or a Persistent Problem?

[Laura Karas, Gerard F. Anderson and Robin Feldman] The Supreme Court ruled in FTC v. Actavis that a delay in generic entry may be anticompetitive when part of a patent settlement that includes a large and otherwise unjustified value transfer to the generic company, termed a reverse payment patent settlement, or “pay-for-delay.” Following Actavis, drug companies have limited the size of reverse payments and have fashioned settlement terms that include more discreet categories of compensation to generic companies. In light of the fact that such settlements retain the potential for anticompetitive effects, the apparent size of the reverse payment may no longer be a useful gauge of the legality of pay-for-delay deals. Click here for more.