InfoJustice Roundup – January 16, 2019

A Huge Win for Open Data in the United States[SPARC] President Trump today signed into law the Open, Public, Electronic and Necessary (OPEN) Government Data Act, a sweeping, government-wide mandate requiring U.S. federal agencies to publish all non-sensitive government information – including federally-funded research – as open data. Click here for more.

Time to put a Stop to The Abuse of Orphan Drug Regulation: The Latest Scandal

[Ellen ‘t Hoen] Today, the Dutch Medical Journal (Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde) reported on the case of lutetium-octreotaat, a cancer drug developed by researchers in the Dutch Erasmus medical centre in Rotterdam. For the last 18 years, the hospital pharmacy made the medicine to treat their patients, keeping prices relatively low. But now the drug is being marketed by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis, and its price has skyrocketed to Euro 23,000 an infusion from an original price of Euro 4,000 an infusion. This takes the price of a complete treatment of 4 infusions to nearly Euro 100,000, a price point at which health insurers no longer wish to reimburse its use. Click here for more.

Germany’s Non-Paper on Art. 13 Screams “Houston, We Have a Problem”

[Teresa Nobre] …Germany proposes to mitigate the negative effects of art. 13 by 1) exempting platforms with a turnover of up to 20 Mio. Euros per year from the obligations imposed by art. 13., 2) exempting platforms from liability in certain situations (e.g. if they made best efforts to obtain an authorization from the rightsholders), and 3) introducing a mandatory EU-wide user-generated content exception to copyright, subject to the payment of a fair remuneration to the rightsholders. Click here for more.

Information Accessibility and Corporate Innovation

[Dongmin Kong, Chen Lin, Lai Wei, and Jian Zhang] Abstract: This paper identifies information accessibility as a determinant of corporate innovation. Using a sudden termination of Google’s web search services in China, we find a large and persistent negative effect on the intensity and quality of corporate innovative activities. As Google’s exit hinders firms’ ability to access foreign information, firms that are more dependent on foreign technology experience a larger decline in patent filings, citations, and citations per patent. The results are stronger among firms in innovative industries, in regions with local web filters, and with fewer alternative sources of foreign information. Overall, the findings are consistent with the view that access to information is a key driver of technological progress. Click here for more.

Ancillary Copyright and Liability of Intermediaries in the EU Directive Proposal on Copyright

[Giovanni Maria Riccio] Abstract: The present study is focused on article 11 and article 13 of the Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on copyright in the Digital Single Market. The study underlines the inefficiency, from both a legal and economic perspective, of the measures held by the EU Commission, considering the purposes of these interventions. Click here for more.

Thai Officials Sought To Strike Down Medical Marijuana Patent Applications by Foreign Firms

[David Boyle] Thai Department of Intellectual Property (DIP) officials “rushed” the inspection of a controversial foreign medical marijuana patent application that the Government Pharmaceutical Organization (GPO) said violated Thai laws, official communications seen by VOA indicate. The patent application, which is still pending, was submitted by the British firm GW Pharmaceuticals and Japan’s Otsuka Pharmaceutical for what opponents of the claim say is effectively an attempt to copyright a raw extract of cannabis that they argue should not be considered an “invention.” …“It is clear that this is in violation of Article 9(1) of the Thai Intellectual Property Act stating that inventions not protected under the Act include microorganisms and/or any part of the microorganisms found in nature, animals, plants, and plant extracts,” [pharmacist Lucksamephen Sarnchawanakit] said, according to the minutes of the meeting seen by VOA. Click here for the full story on the Voice of America website.

USMCA Would Better Serve U.S. Interests with the Addition of a Copyright Balance Provision

[Mike Palmedo] Comments to the International Trade Commission on the economic impact of the USMCA: Last year, we submitted comments to USTR regarding negotiating objectives for US-Mexico-Canada Agreement in which we recommended that U.S. negotiators seek a copyright provision that balances the interest of rightholders and users of copyrighted works… Unfortunately, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement does not include a copyright balancing provision. By excluding the provision, the United States loses an opportunity to promote the interests of firms in some of its most innovative sectors. Click here for more.