Over 70 Organisations Demand Minister Davies Finalise the South Africa Intellectual Property Policy
[Mary-Jane Matsolo] Over 70 organisations globally have called on the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to urgently finalise South Africa’s National Intellectual Property (IP) Policy in an open letter delivered today. You can find a PDF of the open letter below. The Fix the Patent Law campaign thanks all signatories for their support for improving access to medicines in South Africa! Click here for more.
IP Kat Posts Leaked Draft White Paper “Copyright Policy for Creativity and Innovation in the European Union”
Eleonora Rosati has posted a leaked draft of the European Union White Paper “A Copyright Policy for Creativity and Innovation in the European Union.” It contains a brief discussion and a proposed “way forward” on a number of copyright issues – cross-border dissemination in the digital single market; browsing and hyperlinking; knowledge and heritage institutions; education and research; access to knowledge for persons with disabilities; user generated content; private copying; the infrastructure necessary for licensing; fair remuneration of authors and performers; mass digitization; and enforcement. Click here for more.
Secondary Use Pharmaceutical Patents: Litigation and Trade Policy Briefing
[PIJIP] On June 5, PIJIP, Public Citizen, and the firm of Sterne Kessler, Goldstein & Fox held an event to discuss the patent issues behind Lilly’s NAFTA Investor-State dispute with Canada. Lilly alleges that Canada improperly denied patent protection for two drugs based on its “promise doctrine.” The event’s first panel focused on the NAFTA case itself, and the second panel explored the issues more broadly, focusing on differences in U.S., Canadian, and European practices relating to the patenting of pharmaceutical products. Click here for video and presentations.
Pediatric HIV Treatment Initiative Aims to Promote the Development and Distribution of HIV/AIDS Medicines for Children
[Mike Palmedo] The Pediatric HIV Treatment Initiative was launched today at an event on Capitol Hill. It plans to foster the development, manufacture, and distribution of pediatric formulations of antiretroviral therapies for the treatment of HIV/AIDS. The initiative will draw on the Medicines Patent Pool’s existing relationships to obtain the necessary intellectual property rights and production know-how from branded firms, and transfer the technology to generic firms. It then plans to coordinate large-scale purchases to ensure the medicines get to children in need. The Pediatric HIV Treatment Initiative is a joint project of the Medicines Patent Pool, the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative, and UNITAID. Click here for more.
A Realist Approach to Copyright Law’s Formalities
[Michael Carroll] Rejecting the conventional story that formalities in copyright law were abolished by the Berne Convention, this Article demonstrates that privately administered systems of formalities play a significant role in the administration of copyright law worldwide. Indeed, they must because copyright is designed to support a transaction structure which requires rightsholders who seek to attract licensing partners to go through some formal step to identify themselves and the works in which they have a legal or beneficial interest. Click here for more.
Supreme Court of British Columbia Orders Google to Take Down on Entire Domains In Trade Secret Case
[Maira Sutton] The Supreme Court of British Columbia has ordered Google to remove entire domains from its search results—a decision that could have enormous global implications on free expression. This is the latest of several instances of courts exercising dangerous jurisdictional overreach, where they have applied local laws to remove content on the Internet. Not only did the Court order Google to delete the site from its search results on the Canadian “Google.ca” domain, it went even further by demanding it censor the domain worldwide by deleting every instance of the site from its global index. Click here for more.
Submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties on the Korea-Australia Free Trade Agreement
[Matthew Rimmer] …The intellectual property chapter of the Korea-Australia Free Trade Agreement 2014 is controversial. The proposed regime is one-sided and unbalanced. The intellectual property chapter is focused upon providing longer and stronger intellectual property rights for intellectual property owners. There is a failure to properly consider other public interest objectives – such as access to knowledge, the progress of science and the useful arts, and the promotion of innovation and competition. Click here for more.
Lo bueno, lo malo y lo feo de la reforma propuesta a la Ley de Derechos de Autor
[Miguel Morachimo] Este mes la Comisión de Defensa del Consumidor aprobó el Dictamen recaído sobre los doce proyectos de ley que buscaban modificar distintas partes de la Ley de Derechos de Autor. Estos proyectos se presentaron durante las semanas siguientes a las audiencias en el Congreso sobre la investigación #IntervenganAPDAYC y provenían de congresistas de distintas bancadas. Casi todos buscaban cambiar reglas específicas sobre el funcionamiento de las sociedades de gestión colectiva (SGC), y algunos también proponían nuevas excepciones y limitaciones para usos domésticos, actividades sin fines de lucro, actividades religiosas y negocios. Click here for more on hiperderecho.org
