Professor Sean Fiil-Flynn, Director of the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property, American University Washington College of Law, and Professor Klaus Beiter, Professor of Law, North-West University in...
Read More[QUT] Australia needs a new, independent regulatory body and specific offences, penalties and remedies to curb deceptive ‘greenwashing’ marketing claims after the ACCC found the practice was rife among Australian companies… QUT law Professor Matthew Rimmer made the call in a submission to the Senate Standing Committee on Environment and Communications Inquiry into “greenwashing … and legislative options to protect consumers”. Professor Rimmer said Australia’s current regime for regulating greenwashing was fragmented and fractured. “It is split across consumer law, competition policy, corporations law, advertising standards, and intellectual property,” he said. “Australia needs a regulatory body, with specialist knowledge, to address misleading and deceptive environmental claims. There should be proper enforcement against the scourge of greenwashing in Australia.”
Read More[PIJIP] This month, PIJIP Senior Research Analyst Andrés Izquierdo attended the World Intellectual Property (WIPO) General Assembly on behalf of the Global Network on Copyright User Rights. The General Assembly serves as the highest governing body of WIPO, bringing together representatives from all 193 member states. With over 1200 delegates in attendance this year, the assembly provided a crucial platform for member states to engage in discussions and decision-making regarding significant intellectual property policy matters.
Read More[Matthew Sag] … Although we are still a long way from the science fiction version of artificial general intelligence that thinks, feels, and refuses to “open the pod bay doors”, recent advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence (“AI”) have captured the public’s imagination and lawmakers’ interest. We now have large language models (“LLMs”) that can pass the bar exam, carry on a conversation on almost any topic, create new music, and new visual art. The principal copyright questions that you as law makers must consider relate to (1) the copyrightability of artifacts made with generative AI; and (2) the legality of using copyrighted works to train machine learning models, without express consent.
Read More[Public Citizen Press Release] Colombia will soon decide whether to authorize price-cutting generic competition with a critical patented AIDS drug, directly challenging pharmaceutical industry power under a new health ministry resolution in one of the hemisphere’s most influential states. In anticipation of the decision, https://www.citizen.org/article/letter-to-colombias-minister-of-health-supporting-colombias-right-to-issue-a-compulsory-license-for-hiv-treatment-dolutegravir/ Colombian Minister of Health Guillermo Alfonso Jaramillo to support expanding access to dolutegravir, calling the move a “stand for health justice.”
Read More[Faith O. Majekolagbe and Giulia Priora] Abstract: There has been a renewed interest in the adoption of an international instrument on copyright and educational uses at the World Intellectual Property Organization since the COVID-19 pandemic which necessitated an unprecedented large-scale switch to digital education in many countries and brought to the fore the need to address copyright barriers to educational activities in physical and digital settings at the international level. This chapter primarily considers various legal models for copyright limitations and exceptions, specifically the fair use, fair dealing, and exhaustive list models, that could be explored and/or adopted in developing an appropriate international instrument on copyright limitations and exceptions for educational uses. It then draws lessons from the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled to buttress the need for an international instrument on educational uses of copyrighted works.
Read More[Guillermo Rodrigo Corredor] The technological stocktaking for developing countries after the pandemic is quite ambiguous. Although the crisis was stopped using state-of-the-art vaccines that reached the most disadvantaged and remote places in record times, effective access to the new technologies that became available to curb the pandemic is, at least for the time being, less spectacular.
Read More[Katherine Klosek] This month, the Library Copyright Alliance (LCA) issued principles to guide policymakers in their conversations around copyright law and AI. LCA is the voice of the library community on copyright policy; its members—the American Library Association (ALA) and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL)—represent over 300,000 information professionals and thousands of libraries. The LCA principles hold that US copyright law is fully capable of addressing questions about AI-generated outputs.
Read More[Andrés Izquierdo] On behalf of WCL PIJIP and the Global Network on Copyright User Rights, Andrés Izquierdo attended a meeting organized by Daren Tang, Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization – WIPO. The meeting had the participation of more than 40 accredited NGOs and industry stakeholder groups. This meeting served to highlight the pivotal role played by NGOs in the Organization’s work. To the meeting also attended KEI, IFLA, and Innovarte.
Read More[Andrés Izquierdo] The Group of Latin American and Caribbean Countries (GRULAC), delivered a statement supporting initiatives and proposals aimed at expanding and facilitating education, research, and the preservation of cultural heritage in developing countries. GRULAC also advocated for the implementation of WIPO’s Development Agenda (DA) recommendations and the fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) established by the United Nations. The statement was delivered by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela delegation speaking on behalf of GRULAC during the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) General Assembly 2023.
Read More[Andrés Izquierdo] On July 6, 2023, Germán Umaña Mendoza, the Colombian Minister of Commerce, Industry, and Tourism, delivered a compelling opening statement on behalf of Colombia during the General Assembly of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). In his address, Minister Umaña advocated for the establishment of multilateral regulations that would incorporate flexible copyright provisions, enabling enhanced access to education and technological advancements. He also emphasized the need to safeguard cultural expressions and ensure accessibility to digital economies, with the aim of achieving a harmonious equilibrium between sustainable development, trade, intellectual property, investment, and services. Minister Umaña’s is a significant call to action, urging stakeholders to advance a balance in IP rights.
Read More[Mohammad Danish and Ruchi Sharma] Abstract: Our study examines whether the growth in patenting activity in India, spurred by policy changes such as the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs), is reflected in a corresponding increase in the ‘quality’ of Indian patents. To investigate this, we utilise 6,777 Indian patent data granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), which were filed between 1984 and 2015.
Read More[Sanya Samtani] Last week, in the latest instalment of South Africa’s copyright reform saga, the Select Committee on Trade and Industry, Economic Development, Small Business, Tourism, Employment and Labour at the National Council of Provinces (one of the houses of Parliament in South Africa), held a clause-by-clause vote on proposed amendments to the Copyright Amendment Bill [B13D-2017] (CAB) and Performers Protection Amendment Bill [B24-2016]. I summarise some of the salient outcomes of this vote below with regard to the CAB.
Read More[Nirmalya Syam and Shirin Syed] Abstract: Least developed countries (LDCs) benefit from specific flexibilities under the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), including an extended transition period for implementation of the agreement. These flexibilities cease to apply when countries graduate from the LDC category. Cambodia, Djibouti, Senegal and Zambia are among the countries that have recently started the graduation process, which consists of a series of stages over several years and involves analysis of quantitative and qualitative information, including the expected impacts of graduation. In that context, this study analyses the policy and developmental implications for these countries of no longer benefitting from the LDC-specific provisions of the TRIPS Agreement.
Read More[Cheng-chi (Kirin) Chang] Abstract: The rapid development of short-form video social platforms, such as TikTok, has created huge commercial value but also highlights serious copyright infringement problems. Traditional “all rights reserved” protection models may not be adequate in this evolving creative landscape. The paper proposes the use of Creative Commons licenses as a solution to address the imbalance of rights between platforms and users.
Read More[Deborah Gleeson, Belinda Townsend, Brigitte F. Tenni, and Tarryn Phillips] Abstract: This paper presents a political economy analysis of global inequities in access to COVID-19 vaccines, treatments, and diagnostic tests. We adapt a conceptual model used for analysing the political economy of global extraction and health to examine the politico-economic factors affecting access to COVID-19 health products and technologies in four interconnected layers: the social, political, and historical context; politics, institutions, and policies; pathways to ill-health; and health consequences. Our analysis finds that battles over access to COVID-19 products occur in a profoundly unequal playing field, and that efforts to improve access that do not shift the fundamental power imbalances are bound to fail.
Read More[Andrea Contigiani and Marco Testoni] Abstract: This paper studies the impact of geographic isolation on innovation. Geographically isolated regions have lower access to distant knowledge and, thus, may be less effective in producing innovation. In addition, this effect may be moderated by frictions in the labor market, such as trade secrecy protection, that hinder access to local knowledge. To explore this argument, we build a comprehensive dataset of US CBSAs for the period 1971–2014, combining data on travel time, trade secrecy protection, and patenting activity. We find that geographic isolation has a substantial negative impact on innovation quantity and quality. This relationship is at least partially explained by lower access to existing knowledge, as geographic isolation hinders collaboration and, to some extent, mobility. The negative effect is especially pronounced in regions characterized by strong trade secrecy protection. Overall, the evidence suggests that the combination of geographic isolation and trade secrecy protection is detrimental to the innovation performance of regions.
Read More[Electronic Information for Libraries] At WIPO’s Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR/43) that took place in April 2023, delegations were invited to send written comments on the latest version of the draft treaty for the protection of broadcasting organizations presented at the meeting (Second Revised Draft Text for the WIPO Broadcasting Organizations Treaty, document SCCR/43/3). While the text presented at SCCR contained improvements that were welcome e.g. the section on limitations and exceptions (L&Es) was expanded to include uses for teaching and research, as well as preservation of the programme material carried by the signal, the changes don’t go far enough.
Read More[Médecins Sans Frontières Access to Medicines Campaign] … Although the approval of these products was a great achievement, the process of ensuring that people who need them can access them is at a standstill. As crucial contributors to the R&D of these treatments, survivors, affected countries and NGOs should have a say in this process. However, we see that decisions related to access and affordability are currently left only to the private corporations holding legal rights and regulatory data, and to the goodwill of these corporations and national governments.
Read More[Martin Senftleben] Abstract… The rights reservation option following from the regulation of text and data mining in the EU (Article 4 of the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market) could serve as a basis for a remuneration system focusing on the use of human creations for AI training purposes. Considering legal and practical difficulties arising from this approach, however, it is preferable to follow an alternative path and introduce a levy system that imposes a general payment obligation on providers of generative AI systems.
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