American University Announces Developing Country Scholarships for IP in the Multilateral System Course
[PIJIP] American University has announced a limited number of full-tuition scholarships for official delegates of the missions of developing countries to attend a three-week training on Intellectual Property in the Multilateral System June 25 – July 13, 2018, in Geneva, Switzerland. The course is coordinated by American University Washington College of Law and includes lectures and exercises with officials at multiple UN agencies. Click here for more.
Shadow Libraries: Access to Knowledge in Global Higher Education
[Joe Karaganis, ed.] Even as middle- and low-income countries expand their higher education systems, their governments are retreating from responsibility for funding and managing this expansion. The public provision of educational materials in these contexts is rare; instead, libraries, faculty, and students are on their own to get what they need. Shadow Libraries explores the new ecosystem of access, charting the flow of educational and research materials from authors to publishers to libraries to students, and from comparatively rich universities to poorer ones. …Contributors: Balázs Bodó, Laura Czerniewicz, Miroslaw Filiciak, Mariana Fossatti, Jorge Gemetto, Eve Gray, Evelin Heidel, Joe Karaganis, Lawrence Liang, Pedro Mizukami, Jhessica Reia, Alek Tarkowski. Click here for more.
The Plain Packaging of Tobacco Products – A Special Issue of the QUT Law Review – Open Access
[Matthew Rimmer] The QUT Law Review has officially published the final version of Volume 17 (2) – Special Issue on the Plain Packaging of Tobacco Products. This issue looks at important legal and regulatory issues surrounding plain packaging reforms and the ways in which other jurisdictions have approached plain packaging reform and policy. In particular, it covers Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Ireland. Click here for more.
Innovation & Intellectual Property in South Africa: The Case for Reform
[Achal Prabhala] The accessibsa project (accessibsa.org) has a new report out. Authored by Jonathan Berger and Andrew Rens, the report is titled – Innovation & Intellectual Property in South Africa: The Case for Reform. Jonathan and Andrew examined every patent granted in South Africa between 2005-2015, i.e. over a period of 10 years. Their central questions are whether the current IP regime in SA favours innovation as measured by patents, what the state of innovation as measured by patents in SA is, how it ties into the broader legal framework that governs patents, and how all of this related to the proposed IP reform process underway in SA. Click here for more.
South Africa Seminar to Focus on Impact of User Rights in Copyright Reform
[PIJIP] On May 8, Professor Sean Flynn will release the latest PIJIP report – The User Rights Database: Measuring the Impact of Copyright Balance at a public lecture at University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. The report is being released as the South Africa Parliament deliberates on a copyright amendment bill that includes a proposal to adopt a new open and flexible general exception modeled on the US fair use clause. Click here for more.
