Author: InfoJustice Eds.

Health Civil Society Organization Statement on Kenya-US STIP

Posted by | Feb 24, 2023 | ,

[Joint statement endorsed by 11 Kenyan Civil Society Organizations] This statement is in reference to the Statement on the Kenya – United States First Round of the Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership Talks… without endorsing the negotiations, we would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Ministry for ensuring that intellectual property is not one of the identified areas of negotiation. We would like to urge the Ministry to ensure that this position is maintained throughout these negotiations.

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2022: ANOTHER GOOD YEAR FOR THE MARRAKESH TREATY

Posted by | Feb 22, 2023 | ,

[Electronic Information for Libraries] Access to knowledge for millions of people around the world who are blind or otherwise print disabled continued to grow in 2022 with eight more countries – including three EIFL partner countries – joining the Marrakesh Treaty for persons with print disabilities, administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

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Cystic Fibrosis: Court Battle Looms Over Life-Saving Drug

Posted by | Feb 21, 2023 |

[Faith Mutizira] Without treatment, Cystic Fibrosis patients often die in infancy, and their life expectancy is just 20 years in South Africa… A new class of medicines has revolutionised treatment and significantly extended the life expectancy of patients in several high-income countries. However, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, an American company, holds intellectual property (IP) monopolies on all of these drugs – known as CFTR modulators. The extremely high prices they set on elexacaftor/ivacaftor/tezacaftor (Trikafta/Kaftrio) drugs have led to global controversy and huge inequalities of access… Cheri Nel, a South African CF patient, submitted papers to the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg seeking a compulsory licence – a form of IP flexibility – on Trikafta.

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UK Government Axes Plans to Broaden Existing Text and Data Mining Exception

Posted by | Feb 3, 2023 | , ,

[Eleonora Rosati]… In mid-2022, the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) announced that Government would consider broadening the scope for unlicensed TDM activities and introduce a new E&L that would allow TDM for any purpose (including commercial TDM), subject to a lawful access requirement to the relevant copyright works and other protected subject-matter. The latest news, however, is that such a reform will not go ahead. Indeed, yesterday the UK Minister for Science, Research and Innovation confirmed that any such plans have now been axed…

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SIGN THE COPYRIGHT BILL, EIFL URGES NIGERIAN PRESIDENT

Posted by | Jan 24, 2023 | ,

[Electronic Information for Libraries] EIFL has written to the President of Nigeria, His Excellency Muhammadu Buhari, requesting that he sign the Copyright Bill 2022 (SBs. 688 & 769) into law at the earliest opportunity. The Bill, which was passed by the National Assembly on 22 July 2022, overhauls and modernizes Nigeria’s copyright system. It supports the use of works in the digital environment to help foster a creative, technology-friendly ecosystem, and introduces new exceptions for libraries, education and people with disabilities.

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Wikipedia Is Built On The Public Domain

Posted by | Jan 17, 2023 |

[Stephen LaPorte] Wikipedia is built to be shared and remixed. This is possible, in part, thanks to the incredible amount of material that is available in the public domain. The public domain refers to a wide range of creations that are not restricted by copyright, and can be used freely by anyone… There are three basic ways that material commonly enters the public domain.

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The Italian Implementation of the New EU Text and Data Mining Exceptions

Posted by | Dec 14, 2022 | , ,

[Deborah De Angelis] The legislative decree implementing the CDSM Directive in Italy was adopted on November 8th, 2021, and published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale on November 27th. It came into force on December 12th, 2021, amending the Italian Copyright Law. This blog post analyses the implementation of the copyright exceptions for Text and Data Mining, which is defined in the Italian law as any automated technique designed to analyse large amounts of text, sound, images, data or metadata in digital format to generate information, including patterns, trends, and correlations (Art. 70 ter (2) LdA). As we will see in more detail below, the Italian lawmaker decided to introduce some novelties when implementing Art. 3, while following more closely the text of the Directive when implementing Art. 4.

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The Role of Copyright Law in Text and Data Mining Research

Posted by | Dec 2, 2022 | ,

Natasha Karanja & Chebet Koros] When evaluating the copyright ecosystem within the African continent, a perceived imbalance is identified, where researchers face barriers in accessing materials protected by copyright.1 It has been claimed that African copyright regimes do not accommodate public interests because they do not support the research of various stakeholders, specifically within the new era of Artificial Intelligence research. For this reason, and according to one African scholar, African copyright regimes are considered “not fit for purpose”.2 The majority of the African copyright laws provide for a closed list of copyright exceptions, with none applying specifically to Text and Data Mining research.3 This article will define what Text and Data Mining (TDM) research is, its benefits, and outline the role of copyright in TDM research within the Kenyan context vis a vis other countries’ perspectives.

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Left on Our Own: COVID-19, TRIPS-Plus Free Trade Agreements, and the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health

Posted by | Nov 29, 2022 | ,

[Melissa Omino and Joanna Kahumbu] The cusp of the twentieth anniversary of the WTO Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health (hereafter “the Declaration”) was marked by a global pandemic. The Declaration and its iteration in the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (hereafter “TRIPS”) Article 31 bis, should have helped to contain the devastation in least developed and developing countries. The reality is that the pandemic is still ongoing, and the Global South led by South Africa and India are seeking a waiver of provisions to the TRIPS Agreement to ensure that COVID-19 therapeutics, diagnostics, and vaccines reach their citizens in order to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

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The Copyright Experience of the University of the South Pacific: a Union Perspective

Posted by | Nov 29, 2022 | , ,

[Elizabeth Reade Fong] Legislation is meant not only to protect but to bring equity. And copyright legislation is not meant to be any different. However, the reality on the ground in a developing country like Fiji has only reinforced the inequity of access to and, more importantly, the use of information for learning and teaching and research for libraries and educational institutions. The pandemic exacerbated the situation!

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India-UK FTA Leaked Draft Reveals Nobody’s Gain Except Big Pharma

Posted by | Nov 29, 2022 | ,

[Shirin Syed] The draft of the UK-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA) chapter on intellectual property, leaked on October 31, reveals that there are several TRIPS-plus provisions which will devastate the global supply of generic medicines. The FTA contains harmful IP provision such as diluting the patentability standards, overriding section 3(d) of the Indian Patents Act and eliminating pre-grant opposition. If implemented, these provisions would pose a serious threat to the accessibility and affordability of medicines in India and globally.

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Reading Sec. 52(1)(za) of the Copyright Act 1957

Posted by | Nov 14, 2022 |

[Arul George Scaria] Abstract: Sec. 52(1)(za) of the Copyright Act 1957 is an important exception provision under the Indian copyright law. It exempts from copyright infringement liability public performance and communication to the public of certain types of copyrighted works in the course of bonafide religious ceremonies and official ceremonies… Recently, a copyright infringement case was initiated before the Delhi High Court by Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL), which issues licenses for public performance of sound recordings assigned to it by copyright holders, against Lookpart Exhibitions and Events Private Limited (Lookpart), which provides event management services for different social events including weddings.

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Global Civil Society Coalition Promotes Access to Knowledge

Posted by | Oct 10, 2022 | , ,

[Communia Association] Today, the A2K Coalition is launching its website with demands for education, research and cultural heritage… The members of the A2K Coalition represent educators, researchers, students, libraries, archives, museums, other knowledge users and creative communities around the globe. Our individual missions are varied but we all share a vision of a fair and balanced copyright system. Click here for more.

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South African Constitutional Court Rectifies Copyright Discrimination for People with Disabilities

Posted by | Sep 27, 2022 | , ,

[Sanya Samtani] In a unanimous judgment, the Constitutional Court of South Africa confirmed the Pretoria High Court’s finding that the Copyright Act 1978 is unconstitutional and unfairly discriminatory to the extent that it fails to provide for for people with visual and print disabilities. This vindicates a decades-long struggle by BlindSA, the applicants, represented by SECTION27. It is also the first instance of a Constitutional Court requiring copyright legislation to provide for an accessible format shifting provision on the basis that constitutional rights are limited by overly restrictive copyright laws.

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Overpatented, Overpriced: Tackling the Root of the Drug Pricing Crisis

Posted by | Sep 26, 2022 |

[Initiative for Medicines, Access and Knowledge (I-MAK)] The patent system is not working as intended and the public is paying the price. Astronomical prescription drug costs are straining the healthcare system and the budgets of American families and employers. Prescription drug spending has increased 60% in the last decade to over $400 billion today. The status quo is unsustainable.

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WIPO Decides to Hold Two Diplomatic Conferences no later than 2024

Posted by | Aug 30, 2022 |

[Wend Wendland] On July 21, 2022, the General Assembly of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) decided that, by 2024, two diplomatic conferences should take place, one on a proposed new Design Law Treaty, and the other on genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge (TK). Diplomatic conferences are held to negotiate and adopt or revise multilateral treaties and conventions. This decision was as unexpected as it is momentous.

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Excerpt: CCIA Comments to USTR on the U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade

Posted by | Jul 11, 2022 | ,

[CCIA] A flexible copyright regime is necessary for the continued growth of the digital economy. Principles such as fair use are a cornerstone of U.S. copyright law, and industries that rely on this right are a significant contributor to the U.S. economy and exports. CCIA released a report in 2017 on the economic contribution of fair use industries which found that these industries account for 16 percent of the U.S. economy and generate $5.6 trillion in annual revenue. Fair use is also critical to activities central to new areas of innovation and cutting-edge technology such as artificial intelligence and text and data mining.

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Trading Intellectual Property Rights in Europe: From IP Nationalism to International IP

Posted by | Jul 9, 2022 |

[Aurora Plomer] Abstract: …This article’s original contribution to the existing scholarship is twofold. It shows that European States viewed patents as legal shields against foreign industrial piracy spurred by international trade fairs aimed at showcasing national industrial power and the capture of new markets. Secondly, it documents the legal malleability and indeterminacy of patent rights and the role of courts in providing further definition of these rights largely to the benefit of intellectual property (IP) holders in the nineteenth century.

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User Rights in WIPO Broadcast Treaty Must Be Strengthened

Posted by | Jul 5, 2022 | , ,

[Electronic Information for Libraries] At WIPO’s Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR/42) that took place in May 2022, the Committee agreed that the Chair would revise the Draft Text for the WIPO Broadcasting Organizations Treaty (document SCCR/42/3) based on comments, suggestions and questions from delegations. EIFL’s comments focus on Limitations and Exceptions (Article 10). To ensure fair access to copyright-protected content for social, educational and public interest reasons, EIFL calls for the significant strengthening of Article 10. Currently, there is no obligation to provide exceptions of any kind for social, educational or informational uses because Article 10 is optional, not mandatory. It doesn’t provide for exceptions that are mandatory in other treaties, such as the right of quotation and news of the day in the Berne Convention, and the making of accessible format copies in the Marrakesh Treaty.

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WTO Ministerial Decision: ‘TRIPped’ the Waiver

Posted by | Jun 28, 2022 | , ,

[Shirin Syed] The 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) concluded on Friday, June 17, 2022, with a “Ministerial Decision on the TRIPS Agreement”, to facilitate exportation of Covid-19 vaccines under the compulsory licence to enhance availability and accessibility for poor countries… The TRIPS Decision no longer remains an IP waiver as proposed originally by India and South Africa and 65 co-sponsors. It lacks the comprehensive measures as in the original proposal to address the concern of production and supply of Covid-19 vaccines to meet global demand, especially from lower-income countries who are deprived of their fair share of vaccines in the current pandemic.

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