Upcoming PIJIP Webinars:
November 19 | 10:00am EST – A WTO Waiver for Intellectual Property for COVID?Co-sponsored by the American Branch of the International Law Association, Committee on International Intellectual Property, PIJIP and the Texas A&M University Center for Law and Intellectual Property.
November 20 | 10:00am EST – Opening Copyright Exceptions Through Fundamental Rights.User Rights Workshop with Christophe Geiger and Allan Rocha de Souza.
Updates to the PIJIP Patent Pledge Database
[Jorge Contreras] Patent pledges are voluntary commitments made by patent holders without monetary compensation to refrain from asserting their patent rights to the fullest degree. Such pledges have been around for decades and appear in industries ranging from software to automotive to green tech to biotech… Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, firms and institutions around the world have pledged patents and other intellectual property rights to assist with the pandemic response. These efforts include unilateral pledges such as those made by ventilator manufacturer Medtronic and vaccine maker Moderna as well as coordinated pledge efforts such as the Open COVID Pledge and the Japan-based Open COVID-19 Declaration. Click here for more.
How South Africa’s Copyright Bill Would Benefit Citizens During Covid
[Denise Nicholson] South Africa’s Copyright Amendment Bill had been sitting on the desk of President Cyril Ramaphosa for over a year, waiting to be signed into law. But instead of signing the bill, the President returned it to parliament citing constitutional concerns with certain aspects, including new exceptions for libraries, education and persons with disabilities. If enacted, the bill would have helped teaching, learning and research during COVID-19 lockdowns. Instead South Africans are forced to struggle under the current, outdated law. Click here for more.
COVID-19: Licensing Deals on Vaccines Reinforce Need for TRIPS Waiver
[D. Ravi Kanth] The global battle for a waiver to suspend several key provisions in the WTO’s TRIPS Agreement to combat the COVID-19 pandemic could not have come at a more opportune time, as new vaccine candidates being developed by Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and other pharmaceutical companies remain strewn with “opaque and burdensome” licensing conditions, said analysts. The licensing conditions underlying the new vaccine candidates being developed by the big pharmaceutical companies could make affordable access by vulnerable populations to new vaccines almost impossible. Insistence on exclusive licensing agreements, including the setting of prices, which are not open for public scrutiny, could pose serious problems to the developing countries, said analysts. The licensing and pricing rules governing the new vaccine candidates have reinforced the demand for a waiver from implementing several provisions in the TRIPS Agreement, said a person, who asked not to be quoted. Click here for more.
Exceptions as Users’ Rights in EU Copyright Law
[Maurizio Borghi] Abstract: The paper explores possible ways of construing copyright exceptions as users’ rights within the EU legal framework. It discusses some basic principles on the legal nature of exceptions, and then focuses more specifically on EU law and the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). The paper shows that the CJEU has moved away from a strict interpretation of exceptions as “derogations” to general principles of copyright protection, towards recognition of exceptions as bearing autonomous legal status. Click here for more.
Comparative Study on Copyright Exception for Teaching Purposes: Australia, Malaysia and the United Kingdom
[Ratnaria Wahid and Ida Madieha Abdul Ghani Azmi] Abstract: While education is considered a basic human right, the copyright system seems to hamper public access to information and knowledge. This is especially so when information that largely comes from developed countries are used as commodities that have to be bought by developing countries. This paper compares the international and national laws in Malaysia, United Kingdom and Australia on the copyright exceptions to materials used for teaching purposes. It analyzes the different ways countries manage and balance between copyright owners and copyright users’ interest and shows that in many circumstances, copyright owners are over-protected by national copyright systems although this is not required by international copyright law. This paper also shows that international treaties governing copyright law do allow some flexibility for member countries to implement copyright systems based on their own needs and circumstances but such opportunity is not fully utilized by member countries for the benefit of the public. Click here for more.
