Bowman v. Monsanto: Counsel for Parties and Amici to Participate in Event About the Case at AU Washington College of Law
[PIJIP] The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in Bowman v. Monsanto tomorrow. In this case, the Court addresses whether the Federal Circuit erred by (1) refusing to find patent exhaustion – a doctrine which eliminates the right to control or prohibit the use of an invention after an authorized sale – in patented seeds that were sold for planting; and (2) creating an exception to the doctrine of patent exhaustion for self-replicating technologies. As part of PIJIP’s ongoing series of events on Supreme Court intellectual property cases, counsel for parties and amici will discuss Bowman v. Monsanto the afternoon after the oral argument, addressing the reaction of the Court. The event is open to the public, and it will be webcast live and on-demand. Click here for more.
WHO/WIPO/WTO report on Promoting Access to Medical Technologies and Innovation: Article 39.3 and the cost-sharing approach
[Thiru Balasubramaniam] On Tuesday, 5 February 2013, the Secretariats of WHO, WIPO, and WTO released their joint publication, Promoting Access to Medical Technologies and Innovation: Intersections between public health, intellectual property and trade… This piece seeks to highlight the trilateral report’s treatment (pages 63-66, 75) of Article 39.3 of the TRIPS Agreement which is detailed in Chapter II(B)(1). Chapter II is titled “The policy context for action on innovation and access, and section B(1) deals with “intellectual property systems”. In particular, the report emphasizes that data exclusivity is not a requirement of the TRIPS Agreement, and briefly discusses the concept of cost-sharing as an alternative approach to implementing Article 39.3. Click here for more.
As Korea Implements Fair Use, Two Cases Offer Precedent for Flexible Copyright Exceptions and Limitations
[Jaewoo Cho] In 2012, the Korean Copyright Act was amended to include the general provision of a fair use for the effectuation of the U.S. – Korea FTA. The newly introduced article 35-3 (Fair Use of Copyrighted Material) states that “the copyrighted work may be used, among other things, for reporting, criticism, education, and research.” (emphasis added). Article 35-3.2 lists factors to be used to determine if a use is fair, which are very similar to the fair use factors listed in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act. The Korean fair use provision does not have a precedent yet, but there are some cases concerning Article 28 which could have an impact on the fair use analysis. Click here for more.
Indian Users’ Perspective On WIPO Negotiations On Treaty For Visually Impaired
[Catherine Saez, IP Watch] South-East Asia is host to one-third of the world’s 39 million blind people. Over 20 million live in India alone. This week’s special session of the World Intellectual Property Organization aims to clean up the text of an international treaty to facilitate access to books for the blind and visually impaired community. It is thus of prime importance for India, and some there worry that issues such as commercial availability could undermine the treaty’s effectiveness. Click here for the full story on IP-Watch.
Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act Introduced in U.S. House and Senate
[Mike Palmedo] Last week the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research ACT (FASTR) was introduced in both the U.S. House and Senate. The legislation requires federal agencies that fund research to develop a “public access policy” for federally funded academic papers. The policies required by the bill would provide for “free online public access to such final peer reviewed manuscripts or published versions as soon as practicable, but not later than 6 months after publication in peer-reviewed journals; [and] providing research papers … in formats and under terms that enable productive reuse, including computational analysis by state-of-the-art technologies.” Click here for more.
Creative Commons Canada Participates in the Open Government Licence Consultation
[Posted on creativecommons.ca, CC-BY] In response to the Government of Canada’s call for comments on the Proposed Open Government Licence Agreement, Creative Commons Canada submitted the feedback posted below. The government plans to apply this licence to many of the hundreds of thousands of copyrighted works that it shares with the Canadian public. We feel it is important that the government ensures its licence is “Creative Commons friendly” so that everyone may enjoy these public materials and freely remix them with existing Creative Commons works. Our commentary adds our voice to other excellent feedback from the Open Definition Advisory Council, Herb Lainchbury and Teresa Scassa. Click here for more.
US-EU Working Group and Senate Finance Committee on IPRs in the Upcoming Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
[Mike Palmedo] The report of the US-EU High Level Working Group on Jobs and Growth has released its final report, which recommends the negotiation of a trade agreement between the two. The report specifically recommends “a comprehensive agreement that addresses a broad range of bilateral trade and investment issues, including regulatory issues, and contributes to the development of global rules.” The Working Group has seemed hesitant to call for IP negotiations as part of the agreement, but others are signaling that they want the agreement to include new IP protections. Click here for more.
Comparative tables of data exclusivity and patent linkage provisions in TPP and US FTAs
[Public Citizen] Please find links to new tables by Burcu Kilic at Public Citizen’s Global Access to Medicine Program that compare patent linkage and data exclusivity provisions in U.S. Free Trade Agreements and the U.S. proposal to the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement. Data Exclusivity | Patent Linkage
