A group of 27 civil society organizations has drafted a statement to the World Trade Organization (WTO) highlighting the need to overcome copyright barriers to ensure an equitable response to COVID-19. The statement is open for endorsements from both organizations and from individuals until March 18. It will be formally submitted to the WTO on March 22.
Read MoreThree major academic publishers sued Sci-Hub and Libgen for copyright infringement in the Delhi High Court on December 21. Both sites provide unauthorized downloads of academic works to students and researchers. The publishers – Elsevier, Wiley and the American Chemical Society – are asking the judge to require dynamic blocking of the websites.
Read MoreOn December 10, International Human Rights Day, twelve South African civil society groups called on the government to modernize its copyright law. The groups led a march from the Department of Trade and Industry to the Union Buildings and delivered a memorandum demanding the passage of copyright reform to protect vital rights.
Read MoreThe U.S Trade Representative will announce the 2021 Special 301 Review tomorrow. This is the annual review required by the Trade Act which identifies countries that “deny adequate and effective protection of intellectual property (IP) rights or deny fair and equitable market access to U.S. persons who rely on IP protection.” The review is based partially on comments received from “interested parties” to the interagency Special 301 Subcommittee of the Trade Policy Staff Committee.
Read MoreThom Tillis, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, has written U.S Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer asking him to “prioritize strong intellectual property protections” in a trade agreement currently under negotiation with India. His letter states that “India has an unusually restrictive market when it comes to biopharmaceutical innovations,” and notes that it is regularly included in the Special 301 Report.
Read MoreSince its inception, the Special 301 Report has been an instrument used by the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to pressure foreign nations to change their laws at the behest of American business interests. Policies that allow countries to access lower-priced generic medicines feature prominently in USTR’s allegations of inadequate, ineffective protection of intellectual property. This working paper reviews trends in Special 301 listings over the past 12 years.
Read More[Webinar – Sep 15, 2020; 10:00am] MedsPaL is the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP)’s patents and licenses database, a free resource provides information on the intellectual property status of selected patent essential medicines in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The database includes patent and licensing data covering over 8,500 national patent applications on 110 priority medicines (220 formulations) in more than 130 LMICs. In March 2020, it was expanded to provide patent information on treatments currently being tested for COVID-19. The database is available at www.medspal.org.
Read MoreThanks to Ante Wessels for calling to my attention to an EU Trade Policy Review, which aims “to build a consensus around a fresh medium-term direction for EU trade policy, responding to a variety of new global challenges and taking into account the lessons learned from the coronavirus crisis.” The review includes a request for comments from the public, with submissions due September 15.
Read MoreIn 2017, PIJIP released the User Rights Database, a novel, survey-based dataset, which measures changes to countries’ laws on copyright exceptions over time. Last spring we have added three additional countries to the dataset – Canada, Mexico and Taiwan. This post introduces the new data and discusses how it compares to the data from the original set of countries.
Read MoreLast March, the European Commission sent a letter to the South African government warning that its proposed Copyright Amendments Bill carried a “significant legal uncertainty, with negative effects on the South African creative community in general and on foreign investment, including European investment.” In May, MEP Jiří POSPÍŠIL asked who from the Commission sent the letter and why they did so. He noted that the Bill “was the result of a consultation involving representatives of all sectors of South African society, and it concluded that it was the best option available and that it was expected to bring positive effects for South African society.” He also asked which multinational companies the Commission had communicated with about the Bill.
Read More[Presentation and Discussion with Professor Nicole Hassoun, Binghamton University – July 15, 2020 | 5:00-6:00 pm EST] In Global Health Impact – Extending Access to Essential Medicines, Professor Nicole Hassoun proposes a novel approach to evaluate the impact of pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical companies. The approach: Addresses questions and relies on methodology that is interdisciplinary in nature, covering fields of study including economics, political science, public policy, sociology, geography, and philosophy; Emphasizes empirical evidence as critical to assessing the capabilities and capacities of agents and institutions and valuing how facts inform political theory, and; Considers the obligations of pharmaceutical companies and the case for a new kind of ethical investment and consumption to promote global health from the perspective of bioethicists and business ethicists.
Read MoreLast week, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa returned the Copyright Amendment Bill and the Performers’ Protection Amendment Bill back to Parliament for further consideration. The legislation had been passed by the National Assembly and sent to the President to be signed into law, but it had generated strong opposition from rightholder groups, including those in the U.S. such as the IIPA.
Read More… U.S. negotiating objectives should be interpreted to include protection of the right to research, as it is a protection granted under U.S. law. The U.S. should negotiate language in the intellectual property chapter of the US-Kenya Trade Agreement that protects the right to research. The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for researchers to access to the latest scientific knowledge, as well as access the underlying data. In recent months, publishers have temporarily opened access to a range of scientific publications in order to provide researchers around the world with the information they need to search for treatments and vaccines for this one grave disease. But researchers’ need for access to previous scientific works is not new, and it is not temporary. When the current pandemic has run its course, researchers everywhere will still need access to the world’s stock of scientific knowledge in order to meet other challenges.
Read MoreThe Supreme Court has ruled 5-4 that copyright protection does not apply to annotations in state’s annotated legal code. The ruling in Georgia v. Public Resource.Org affects 23 states, two territories and Washington, D.C. PIJIP Professor Peter Jaszi commented that “This is the beginning of the end of a long journey toward opening all judicial and legislative materials to the public – the modern stage of which began more than thirty-five years ago in the West Publishing cases. The struggle to open governmental information at every level of the administrative state continues.”
Read More[Mike Palmedo and Margarita Gorospe] As schools have closed in response to the Coronavirus 19 pandemic, interest in online learning has increased dramatically. Online learning often involves distributing copyrighted works online, so its governed by copyright limitations that vary widely from one country to the next. Some countries allow teachers, parents, and/or students to share works or parts of works online for educational purposes. Other countries do not, or place different types of conditions on the limitation.
Read MoreThe U.S. Trade Representative has announced its intention to seek a Free Trade Agreement with Kenya, and has requested comments on its negotiating objectives. The U.S. negotiating objectives for FTAs are guided by Section 102 of the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015 (19 U.S.C. 4201).
Read More[Mike Palmedo and Margarita Gorospé] In April 2019, IIPA petitioned USTR to review South Africa’s GSP benefits, alleging it fails to provide “adequate and effective” protection of copyrighted works… IIPA notes the following concern with the quotations exception in South Africa’s Copyright Amendments Bill: “Section 12B(1)(a) provides a broad and circular exception for quotation, permitting any quotation provided that ‘the extent thereof shall not exceed the extent reasonably justified by the purpose,’ but without enumerating the permitted purposes, for example, criticism and review.” However, this type of language is not uncommon.
Read MoreLast week, the Interagency Trade Policy Staff Committee chaired by the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) held its hearing for the 2020 Special 301 Review… All of the documents associated with the investigation, including the request for comments, submissions from industries and countries, etc. and hearing statements are available at https://www.regulations.gov/docket?D=USTR-2019-0023. A transcript of the hearing will be posted on the docket within the two weeks. Below are some notes on the hearing.
Read MorePIJIP has created a page for comments submitted by members of the User Rights Network to the U.S. Trade Representative for its GSP Country Practice Review of South Africa. This review is being conducted in response to an IIPA petition critical of South Africa’s Copyright Amendments Act.
Read More[Mike Palmedo and Andres Izquierdo] Our submission demonstrates that it is common for countries to allow the use of copyrighted works for educational purposes – even full works – without the authorization of the copyright owner. We reviewed the copyright laws all the Members of the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) and the WIPO Group of Latin American and Caribbean Countries (GRULAC) – a total of 38 countries.
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