TPP Intellectual Property Chapter Leaked

Last week, Wikileaks released the completed text of the Trans Pacific Partnership intellectual property chapter. The text has been negotiated, yet it is still subject to legal “scrub.” The text and commentary follow:

  • Full Text: “TPP Treaty: Intellectual Property Rights Chapter, Consolidated Text.”
  • Public Citizen. WikiLeaks Publication of Complete, Final TPP Intellectual Property Text Confirms Pact Would Raise Costs, Put Medicines Out of Reach.
  • Jeremy Malcolm, Electronic Frontier Foundation. The Final Leaked TPP Text Is All That We Feared.
  • Union for Affordable Cancer Treatemtn Statement on TPP negotiations.
  • Michael Geist. Canada Caves on Copyright in TPP: Commits to Longer Term, Urge ISPs to Block Content.

WIPO African Ministerial Should Embrace a Pro-Competitive and Pro-Development IP Vision

[Ahmed Abdel-Latif, Dick Kawooya, and Chidi Oguamanam] An African ministerial meeting, organised by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the Japan Patent Office (JPO), to be held in Senegal next November 3-5 should embrace a balanced and development-oriented approach to intellectual property. Such an approach ought to take into account the needs, priorities and socio-economic circumstances of African countries as well as the most recent empirical evidence on the dynamics of intellectual property and innovation on the continent. Click here for more.

Supporting User Rights for Mass Digitization of Culture

[Timothy Vollmer] A few months ago the United States Copyright Office issued a request for comments on an extended collective licensing (ECL) pilot program they are considering for mass digitization projects. The Office thinks that such a program would permit greater access to cultural works by allowing institutions to engage in mass digitization and then license those digital collections for a fee. Creative Commons and Creative Commons USA submitted comments to the Copyright Office in coordination with Wikimedia and Internet Archive. Click here for more.

LDCs Be Damned: USTR and Big Pharma seeks to eviscerate Least Developed Countries’ Insulation From Pharmaceutical Monopolies

[Brook Baker] In November of 2001, at the height of the global AIDS pandemic, every WTO member country in the world, including the United States, voted unanimously in the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health that WTO Least Developed Countries members should be granted an unconditional extension of any obligation to grant or enforce patents, data protections, or exclusive marketing rights on pharmaceutical products. …Fast forward to 2015, and LDCs are again seeking an extension of that same no-pharmaceutical-monopolies policy, which expires on January 1, 2016.  Their request has reportedly received approval in nearly every capital of the world – except Washington D.C. Click here for more.

Against the Privatization of Argentina’s Photographic Memory

[Luisa Guzmán] Last week Fundación Via Libre released a statement urging Argentinian lawmakers to drop a bill proposing a Copyright term extension for photographs, and asking them to open a public debate with the purpose of improving the general conditions for the circulation of cultural goods. To date, over 50 cultural, artistic, and digital rights organizations have signed the statement. Click here for more.

EIFL and KLISC Comment on Kenya ISP Liability Proposals

[Electronic Information for Libraries]  EIFL and the Kenya Library and Information Services Consortium (KLISC) have jointly responded to a public consultation organized by the Kenya Copyright Board on proposals to provide web blocking measures in cases of online copyright infringement (also known as ISP liability). The proposed amendments to the Copyright Act provide a framework for shared responsibility between rights holders and internet service providers (ISPs) in responding to infringing activity in the digital environment. Since libraries provide digital services, this is a subject of great interest to libraries. Click here for more.