VIDEO: American University Public Session on COVID-19, Vaccines, and Trade
On July 1, American University’s Summer Program on the WTO & U.S. Trade Law and Policy hosted a public session on COVID-19, Vaccines and Trade. The panel featured Sean Flynn, Director of PIJIP; Padideh Ala’i, professor of law at WCL; Renata Amaral, adjunct professor at WCL; Simon Evenett, professor at the university of St. Gallen; Henning Grosse Ruse-Khan, the co-director of CIPIL at Kings College; and Antony Taubman, the Director of IP Division at the World Trade Organization. Prof. Amaral moderated, asking the panel to discuss supply chain issues, what to expect with the different variants of the current strain, and how the proposed TRIPS waiver currently under debate at the World Trade Organization could help countries obtain vaccines. Click here for more.
Global Network on Copyright User Rights – Submission to South Africa, re: Copyright Amendment Bill [B13B – 2017]
[Sean Flynn] We provide this comment on Clause 13, section 12A of the Copyright Amendment Bill [B13B-2017]. Section 12A is an open general exception for “fair use” of copyrighted works. This provision is largely an updating of South Africa’s current general exception for “fair dealing” with a copyrighted work. The primary improvements of Section 12A over the current fair dealing exception are (1) to open the list purposes to which the exception can apply by virtue of including the words “such as” before the list of authorized purposes, and (2) providing an explicit balancing test to determine whether a particular use is fair. Click here for more.
Public Lies and Public Goods: Ten Lessons From When Patents and Pandemics Meet
[Peter Drahos] Abstract: The paper examines three decades of the history of patents and pandemics that begins with the HIV/AIDS pandemic and TRIPS. This history demonstrates that the patent system is itself a huge source of risk when it comes to managing the risks of pandemics. From this history ten core lessons are extracted. The central message of the paper is that developing countries will have to focus on collaborations among themselves with the aim of building a wide base of rich manufacturing experience in the production of medicines and therapies. They can expect no priority of treatment under the present patent-mediated response to pandemics. Click here for more.
An Endless Odyssey? Content Moderation Without General Content Monitoring Obligations
[Christina Angelopoulos and Martin Senftleben] Abstract: In line with the E-Commerce Directive and the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, the proposed Digital Services Act provides explicitly that intermediaries may not be obliged to monitor their service in a general manner in order to detect and prevent the illegal activity of their users. However, a misunderstanding of the difference between monitoring specific content and monitoring FOR specific content is a recurrent theme in the debate on intermediary liability and a central driver of the controversy surrounding it. Rightly understood, a prohibited general monitoring obligation arises whenever content – no matter how specifically it is defined – must be identified among the totality of the content on a platform. The moment platform content must be screened in its entirety, the monitoring obligation acquires an excessive, general nature. Click here for more.
Progress In TRIPS Waiver Talks Despite New Hurdles Created by EU
[D. Ravi Kanth] Amidst the groundswell of international support for the proposed TRIPS waiver at the World Trade Organization, the proponents of the waiver on 6 July expressed confidence and optimism on the progress being made in the ongoing small-group consultations in paving the way for an outcome on the waiver, said people familiar with the development. However, the European Union seems to have gone back on its assurances of constructive engagement in the small- group consultations on the revised TRIPS waiver proposal, and appears to be creating new hurdles in an act of bad faith, said people, who asked not to be quoted. Click here for more on twn.my.
