Educators’ Unions in Australia and the EU Call for Education to Be Carved Out of Trade Negotiations
[Education International] During the Education International (EI) 8th World Congress, affiliated educators’ unions in Australia and the European Union issued a statement calling for the Australian government and the European Commission to be more transparent in ongoing negotiations on the potential free trade agreement and to explicitly carve out education from the negotiations. Click here for more.
Global drug Diffusion and Innovation with a Patent Pool: The Case of HIV Drug Cocktails
[Lucy Xiaolu Wang] Abstract: …I study the impact of the first joint licensing platform for drug bundling (the Medicines Patent Pool) on global drug diffusion and innovation. The pool allows generic firms worldwide to sublicense drug bundles cheaply and conveniently for sales in a set of developing countries. I construct a novel dataset from licensing contracts, public procurement, clinical trials, and drug approvals. Using difference-in-differences methods, I find robust evidence that the pool leads to a substantial increase in generic supply of drugs purchased. In addition, the branded-drug makers and other entities, such as public institutions, respond to the pool with higher R&D inputs as measured by clinical trials. The R&D input increase is accompanied by increases in generic drug product approvals. Finally, I estimate a structural model to quantify welfare gains and simulate counterfactuals. The total benefit far to consumers and firms exceeds the associated costs. Click here for more.
The Same Problem, Different Outcome: Online Copyright Infringement and Intermediaries’ Liability Under the US and the EU Law
[Lia Shikhiashvili] Abstract: … Recently, the European Union has adopted a new Copyright Directive, which, in article 17 (ex-article 13) indirectly introduces filtering and monitoring obligations to online platforms that allow users to upload content. It creates the “de facto strict liability regime” for internet intermediaries to root out copyright-infringing content. In contrast with this approach, in the United States internet intermediaries still benefit from the legislative immunities that exclude them from copyright-infringement liability uploaded by their users. This article compares the new European Union directive with the United States approach and shows that these differences might create uncertainties in the digital marketplace. This article also reviews potential consequences of the article 17 and demonstrates the need of harmonized secondary liability regime to Internet Service Providers at European level, without sacrificing safe harbor provisions. The article proposes the adoption of “fair use doctrine” and “fair remuneration” provisions as an effective and alternative tool to protect the rights of all players in the digital scene and simultaneously tackle the so-called “value gap” problem. Click here for more.
Senators Chris van Hollen and Rick Scott Introduce Bill on Reasonable Pricing of Federally-Funded Drugs
[James Love] This is a copy of the “We PAID Act” by Senators Chris van Hollen (D-MD) and Rick Scott (R-FL)… The 31 page bill creates a new non-profit organization to determine reasonable prices for drugs that use “qualifying patents” that benefited from federal funding, and would impose harsh sanctions, including the loss of access to federally-funded inventions and a loss of exclusivity, when prices exceed a reasonable price, or have annual increases in prices that exceed a medical care category of the consumer price index. The National Academies provides inputs to the methodology. If a product had even a single federally funded patent, the reasonable pricing obligation would apply. Click here for more on kieonline.org.
Copyright Week 2019 Johannesburg: Decolonising Copyright, Building Our Creative & Information Economy
[ReCreate South Africa] Aug 7 – This morning, Recreate ZA, in partnership with Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property, Wits Library, Wiser and the UCT IP Unit hosted an event titled: Decolonising Copyright, Building our Creative & Information Economy. Speakers included Ruth L. Okediji, Ben Cashdan, Justice Zak Yacoob, Daniel Mashao, and Mugwena Maluleke. Click here for more.
