Heraldo Muñoz, Chilean Minister of Foreign Affairs and TPP: “If There Is Not an Acceptable Agreement, We Will Not Sign”
[Claudio Ruiz] In a special session about TPP at the Chilean House of Representatives, Heraldo Muñoz, the local Foreign Affairs Minister, identified intellectual property and pharmaceutical patents as the most sensitive issues for Chile in the negotiation… and answered questions made by representatives, especially regarding intellectual property and US certification. The session was requested by 45 representatives, led by the former student leader and current representative for Santiago, Giorgio Jackson, with the intent to have more information about the secretive negotiations on TPP. Click here for more.
TPP Ministerial Meeting Postponed, But IP Negotiators Meet in Guam With Full Agenda
[Mike Palmedo] …The Japan Times reports that the intellectual property chapter appears “likely to be the last hurdle to concluding the talks.” Remaining issues that are under debate include copyright term, geographical indications, and data exclusivity. Click here for more.
Elsevier’s new sharing policy harmful to authors and access to scholarly research
[Tim Vollmer] Today Creative Commons and 22 other organizations published a letter urging the publishing giant Elsevier to alter its newly revised policy regarding the sharing and hosting of academic articles so that it better supports access to scholarly research. Elsevier’s new policy, announced 30 April 2015, is detrimental to article authors as well as those seeking access to these research papers. Click here for more.
Statement: Blumenthal Offers Amendment on Trade Transparency
[Sean Flynn and David Levine] Senators Blumenthal, Brown, Baldwin, and Udall introduced today a trade negotiation transparency bill that would require that all formal U.S. proposals for trade agreement restrictions on domestic regulations be posted on a website. This is a common sense policy that should be broadly supported. The bill would require policies similar to the transparency policies currently followed by the European Union and by intergovernmental organizations that set similar minimum regulatory standards. But it would be a major change in the current process for trade negotiations followed by the U.S. Trade Representative, which are infamously secretive. Click here for more.
WHA 68: Experts Discuss Delinking R&D Costs From Pricing To Make Medicines Affordable
[William New] The problem of drug prices eating up national health budgets has been coming up at the annual World Health Assembly. Last week, a panel of experts discussed the merits of lowering those prices by delinking research and development costs from pricing… A 20 May event held at UNAIDS looked at the model used by the research-based pharmaceutical industry to recover R&D costs by charging high prices for the resulting medicines by utilising patents on them. But in recent months and years, prices have hit a point where there is more pushback from consumers and policymakers. Click here for the full story on IP Watch.
Tech Company and User Groups Letter to Congress on Trans Pacific Partnership and Fast Track
[Joint letter to Congress] We write to you as a community representing thousands of our nation’s innovators, entrepreneurs, job-creators, and users to express our concern over trade agreements such as the Trans-‐Pacific Partnership (TPP)… The TPP contains language that could prevent countries from expanding exceptions and limitations to copyright. The Fast Track Bill also contains nothing to promote balance in copyright law. This is despite how much value fair use has added to the U.S. economy and could add for investors in the growing economies of our trading partners. Click here for more.
