Call for Participation: Access to Medicines Track at the 2015 Global Congress
[Matt Kavanagh] The fourth annual Global Congress will be held this December in New Delhi, India and the Access to Medicines track is calling for participation from: Scholars & researchers, Activists & civil society networks. Apply to participate in the full session of panels, workshops & strategy/messaging sessions: http://global-congress.org/participate. In addition, an important portion of the Congress will include presentation of research and papers on Access to Medicines. When applying to participate you may indicate your interest in presenting a paper. Limited financial support for travel is available, with priority on participation from the global South. Please apply early if you will need assistance. Click here for more.
Intellectual Property and Trade in a Post-Trips Environment
[Henning Grosse Ruse-Khan] … this paper questions whether the rules in TRIPS and GATT are still adequate to deal with today’s reality of IP protection and enforcement in and beyond the trade context. This reality is increasingly framed by unilateral, bilateral and regional standards of IP rule-making that go beyond the multilateral norms found in TRIPS and create an increasingly fragmented system of “TRIPS-plus” protection and enforcement of IP rights around the globe. My core argument is that the uncoordinated expansion of TRIPS-plus rules increasingly serves as a barrier to global trade. This in turn begs the question whether the WTO rules on IP (TRIPS) and those on trade in goods (GATT) are still fit to operate in such a changed environment and can provide for adequate safeguards against trade barriers based on uncoordinated expansion of IP protection and enforcement. Click here for more.
Paraguay’s Copyright Reform and Data Retention Law
[Marcela Palacio Puerta] This month has been a busy one for Paraguay’s copyright law and Internet governance. The Paraguayan Congress decided to reject copyright legislation that sought to modify the current copyright law in articles 128,138, and 139. The reform would have established an “arbitral commission” as part of the Intellectual Property Office (DINAPI) in charge of establishing the fee rate for using copyright. Moreover, the bill of law established that the fee should be paid in a state-dependent “one-stop” location. Click here for more.
Secret Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Takes Centre Stage In Asia
[Patralekha Chatterjee] … The eighth round of negotiations for the RCEP concluded this month at the Japanese city of Kyoto amid a shroud of secrecy and intense speculation. There is no official text available for the public to assess what specifically was being negotiated. But drafts leaked by the US-based nongovernmental organisation Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) of recent proposals from Japan and South Korea on the chapter on intellectual property point to RCEP being similar to the TPP in significant aspects. This has raised the hackles of activists campaigning for access to affordable medicines. KEI also uploaded leaked drafts of the negotiating positions of India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on its site this month. Click here for more.
Australia’s version of SOPA is now law: Why didn’t anyone stop it?
[Ariel Bogle] … The site blocking bill that became law this week in Australia will allow copyright holders of content like film and television to apply to the Federal Court for an injunction forcing ISPs, such as Telstra, to block foreign websites that facilitate piracy. On Monday evening, while the site blocking law passed easily in the Australian senate, the home pages of Google and Wikipedia, not to mention every other website, were up and running. Why did the protest against SOPA and PIPA become a movement that successfully killed the two bills, while the Copyright Amendment (Online Infringement) Bill faced only opinion pieces by technology journalists, a murmur on social media and one public hearing? Click here for the full story on Mashable.
“Ley Antimemes” en México, ¿amenaza a la libertad de expresión?
Un nuevo proyecto de ley en el estado de Sonora postula el derecho a la propia imagen como absoluto, sin tomar en cuenta las reglas y características de internet. Aunque se popularizó como una ley “antimemes”, la iniciativa se puede constituir en un peligro para la libertad de expresión en línea. [Google Translation: A new bill in the state of Sonora posits the right to self-image as absolute, regardless of the rules and characteristics of internet. Although it was popularized as a “antimemes” law, the initiative may constitute a danger to freedom of expression online.] Click here for more on derechosdigitales.org.
Alternative Compensation Models for Large-Scale Non-Commercial Online Uses
[João Pedro Quintais] Abstract: This paper briefly discusses an alternative legal model to assure remuneration for non-commercial mass online uses by individuals, covered by the exclusive rights of reproduction and communication/making available to the public in Directive 2001/29/EC. Alternative compensation systems (ACS) are legal mechanisms that forsake the need for direct authorization of end-user acts under the aforementioned rights – downloading, uploading, sharing, modifying – while simultaneously ensuring compensation to creators (i.e. authors and performers) or all rights holders of works included in the scheme. Click here for more.
TPP Nations Plan Late-July Ministerial, IP and Pharmaceuticals Among the Toughest Issues Remaining
[Mike Palmedo] Inside U.S. Trade reports that trade ministers have scheduled a Trans Pacific Partnership Ministerial for the end of July in Hawaii. Chief negotiators will meet prior to the Ministerial to try to iron out remaining areas of disagreement. Jiji press reports that there are six unresolved areas where “negotiations are not proceeding smoothly.” Data exclusivity for biologics is one such area. The story quotes a Japanese negotiator saying “Unless Washington shortens the requested protection period, there is little chance of an agreement.” Click here for more.
