Author: Mike Palmedo

The Value of Indian Patents: An Empirical Analysis Using Citation Lags Approach

Posted by | Jul 5, 2023 |

[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.

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Fixing WIPO’s Proposed Broadcasting Treaty

Posted by | Jun 16, 2023 | , ,

[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.

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Colombia Changes Its Position on the Budget at WIPO

Posted by | Jun 3, 2023 |

[Carolina Botero] Keeping track of the budgets of entities is boring, but it is key because it defines what is funded and what is not. Last week the Member countries of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) held the first of two meetings to approve the budget that will now include work on exceptions and limitations.

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Measuring Change in Copyright Exceptions for Text and Data Mining

Posted by | May 25, 2023 | , ,

[Michael Palmedo, Momina Imran, Miguel Alvarenga, Luca Schirru, and Duc Le] Abstract: Copyright exceptions for researchers are under debate at the World Intellectual Property Organization and within domestic governments, yet empirical research in this area is rare. In this early working paper, we aim to add to this nascent body of research. We expand PIJIP’s previous review and classification of copyright exceptions in WIPO Members’ laws by tracing changes in the laws over time. We find that most countries have copyright exceptions allowing some unauthorized uses for research purposes. However, most countries’ exceptions restrict some mix of the users, uses, or types of works that are allowed.

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Pandemic Accord: MSF’s Comments on Equity Provisions in WHO’s Zero Draft

Posted by | Apr 8, 2023 | ,

[Médecins Sans Frontières] In this briefing document, MSF analyses provisions related to transparency, intellectual property (IP), research and development (R&D), antimicrobial resistance (AMR), stockpiling, and access and benefit sharing in the accord zero draft. The definitions and scope of these provisions, as well as the nature of obligations contained therein, are key to determining the extent to which the accord can meaningfully address inequity.

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Trade Associations Write USPTO in Opposition to WIPO Broadcast Treaty

Posted by | Mar 14, 2023 |

Six trade associations have written Mary Critharis, Director of the USPTO’s Office of Policy and International Affairs, urging the U.S. delegation to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to oppose the Broadcast Treaty. The treaty is under debate this week at WIPO’s Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights. The letter explains that “a rights-based broadcasting treaty is unnecessary and counterproductive” and that signal theft can be combatted through “a treaty narrowly focused on signal theft, consistent with the approach taken in the United States.”

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US ITC Investigation on Whether to Extend TRIPS Waiver Is Accepting Comments Through Friday, March 17

Posted by | Mar 14, 2023 | ,

[Mike Palmedo] The U.S. International Trade Commission is writing a report (requested by USTR) investigating “whether to extend flexibilities under the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) to COVID-19 diagnostics and therapeutics.” It is seeking comments from all interested parties on this question and a broad set of sub-questions related to TRIPS flexibilities and access to medicines. The deadline to submit comments is this Friday, March 17.

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Evaluating the Impact of Data Exclusivity on the Price of Pharmaceutical Imports

Posted by | Feb 24, 2023 | ,

[Mike Palmedo] I have a new paper in the Journal of Globalization and Development. “Evaluating the Impact of Data Exclusivity on the Price of Pharmaceutical Imports” finds large increases in the price of imported medicines when the U.S.’s trading partners implement data exclusivity to meet FTA obligations. The full impact of data exclusivity laws took many years to become apparent though observation of aggregated prices, because the laws themselves only applied to medicines new medicines.

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USITC Launches Investigation on Covid-19 Diagnostics and Therapeutics, and Flexibilities Under the TRIPS Agreement

Posted by | Feb 6, 2023 |

[Mike Palmedo] The U.S. International Trade Commission has launched an investigation (USITC) “to inform consideration of whether to extend flexibilities under the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) to COVID-19 diagnostics and therapeutics.” The investigation was requested by USTR. The announcement includes a request for comments from “foreign governments, non-governmental health advocates, and diagnostic and therapeutic manufacturers.” There will be an open public hearing on March 29, and requests to testify are due by March 15. The deadline for written comments is May 5.

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USTR Requests International Trade Commission Study of COVID-19 Diagnostics and Therapeutics

Posted by | Jan 6, 2023 | ,

[Mike Palmedo] U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai has requested that the International Trade Commission conduct a study on the market dynamics of COVID-19 diagnostics and therapeutics. She is requesting a wide variety of subtopics be included in the report, including “The relationship between patent protection and innovation in the health sector and between patent protection and access to medicine in LICs, LMICs, UMICs, and HICs; “Actions taken by WTO Members to use or attempt to use compulsory licenses for the production, importation, or exportation of pharmaceutical products and the outcomes of those actions, including the effect on product access, innovation, and global health”

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AELK and EIFL submit comments on Kosovo’s Draft Law on Copyrights and Related Rights (2022)

Posted by | Oct 24, 2022 |

[Electronic Information for Libraries] EIFL and our partner, the Association of Electronic Libraries in Kosova (AELK) participated in a public consultation organized by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports of the Republic of Kosovo on the new draft copyright law. EIFL and AELK submitted comments on the new draft law. Our comments concerned three areas: compliance with the Marrakesh Treaty for persons with print disabilities, exceptions for libraries, and the three-step test (that sets conditions for the use of an exception).

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An Overview of Copyright Restrictions to Legal TDM Research

Posted by | Aug 15, 2022 | , , ,

[Mike Palmedo] PIJIP has been reviewing copyright laws around the world. Our detailed review is available as a PIJIP working paper in which we classify countries “based on the degree to which they have a research exception in their law that is sufficiently open to be able to permit reproduction and communications of copyrighted work needed for academic (i.e. non-commercial) text and data mining (TDM) research.” This post presents the data on copyright exceptions by restriction rather than by country. It demonstrates that wealthier countries tend to have less restrictive copyright exceptions for TDM research, relative to other countries.

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100 Members of Congress Write Biden Administration Urging Compulsory Licenses for Drugs Produced with Taxpayer Funding

Posted by | Jun 28, 2022 | ,

[Mike Palmedo] A group of 100 Members of Congress led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Lloyd Doggett has sent a letter to DHHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, asking him to take actions to lower U.S. drug prices. The letter specifically asks him to “utilize administrative authorities, including government patent use compulsory licensing under 28 U.S.C. 1498 and march-in and royalty-free rights under the Bayh-Dole Act.” These actions would introduce generic and biosimilar competition for drugs developed with U.S.-taxpayer funding.

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African Group Proposal to WIPO on Copyright Exceptions and Limitations

Posted by | Mar 14, 2022 | ,

Last week, the Africa Group has submitted a proposal for a Draft Work Program on Exceptions and Limitations to WIPO’s Standing Committee on Copyright and RElated Rights (SCCR). It was submitted in for discussion at the upcoming SCCR meeting in May. The proposal asks SCCR to “continue to work towards an appropriate international legal instrument or instruments (whether model law, joint recommendation, treaty and/or other forms) on limitations and exceptions for libraries, archives, museums, education, research, and uses for persons with other disabilities.”

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Singapore’s Copyright Act 2021: New Exception for Computational Uses and Updates to Fair Use and Educational Exceptions

Posted by | Nov 27, 2021 | , , ,

[Mike Palmedo] Singapore’s new Copyright Act came into force on November 21. The law was amended to keep up with changes in ICT technology that affect the creation and consumption of copyrighted works. The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore has posted a good overview, and three more detailed descriptions… This post highlights three changes to the limitations and exceptions that may be of interest to InfoJustice’s readers.

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Research Exceptions in Comparative Copyright Law

Posted by | Nov 10, 2021 | , , , ,

[Sean Flynn, Michael Palmedo, and Andrés Izquierdo] Abstract: Recent scholarship has highlighted the positive impact on scholarship of copyright exceptions for text and data mining and of more “open” exceptions for research uses. Until now, however, there has not been a collection and categorization of the world’s copyright laws according to the degree to which they provide exceptions for research. In this report, we release the results of the first such study. We show that every copyright law in the world has at least one exception to promote research uses of copyrighted works, but that such exceptions vary widely between countries.

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Promotion of TRIPS-Plus Intellectual Property Provisions Through the Special 301 Review: How Did It Change During the COVID-19 Pandemic?

Posted by | Aug 17, 2021 | , , , ,

[Mike Palmedo] This post introduces my chapter the Special 301 Report in the newly-published book Intellectual Property and Access to Medicines.  The chapter, titled “Unilateral Norm Setting Using Special 301” focuses on Special 301 listings from 2009 to 2020 related to intellectual property policies that can be used to access generic medicines. This post will also describe the Special 301 listings in the 2021 Special 301 Report, which was released after the Covid-19 pandemic had taken hold. There were some differences in the 2021 Report pertaining to specific TRIPS flexibilities useful in the fight against Covid-19. However, much of the 2021 Report was similar to the reports released before the pandemic – the Report still criticized countries for policies that could help the fight against Covid-19.

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End-User Flexibilities in Digital Copyright Law – An Empirical Analysis of End-user License Agreements

Posted by | Jul 3, 2021 | , ,

[Péter Mezei and István Harkai] Abstract: In the platform age, copyright protected contents are primarily disseminated over the internet. This model poses various challenges to the copyright regime that was mainly designed in and for the analogue age. One of these challenges is related to the fair balance between the interests of rightholders and other members of the society. Copyright norms try to guarantee this balance by granting a high level of protection for rightholders and preserving some flexibility for end-users. Regulation by platforms’ end-user license agreements might also be relevant to preserve that balance. The present paper focused on how these private norms allow for or diminish the exercise of user flexibilities. We collected, analysed and compared seventeen private ordering practices of service providers grouped in four main categories.

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New Paper Shows Data Exclusivity Linked to Higher Prices of Pharmaceutical Imports

Posted by | Apr 23, 2021 | , , ,

[Mike Palmedo] Some studies that estimating the impact that trade agreements have had on medicine prices have found it to be small, as the effects take a long time to become fully apparent. Studies that have instead studied the effect of TRIPS-Plus rules required by trade agreements – such as patent term extensions, rules on the protection of test data – have often found significant impacts on prices or availability of medicines. Many of the existing studies have focused on one country, and/or on a few drugs. In a new working paper, I take another approach by focusing on one TRIPS-plus provision required by all US trade agreements and demonstrating that the provision has been associated with faster inflation of imported pharmaceutical import prices in a set of 42 countries. Specifically, the price of drug imports rose on average between 2.4 and 4.5 percentage points faster in the countries that had implemented data exclusivity than in those without it.

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