Author: James Love

Following the Friday vote in the House of Representatives which effectively blocked movement (for now) on the Trade Promotion Authority, and more generally, slowed down the TransPacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations, I was contacted by Dr. Harvey Bale, the well known former Director General of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA). In an exchange on Facebook, Dr. Bale took favorable note of the outcome on fast track, and described the vote against fast track as “A very good day, Indeed.” I asked Dr. Continue Reading →

I have written an article for Medium, titled: TPP, designed to make medicine more expensive, reforms more difficult. (Link here)
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(More KEI RCEP leaks here: /rcep)

Last week, KEI published the October 3, 2014 Korea proposals for the RCEP IP Chapter (https://www.keionline.org/node/2239), and earlier we published a Japan proposal for the RCEP IP Chapter (/node/2173)

Today we are publishing two new proposals for the RCEP IP Chapter, the proposals by

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The US Copyright Office has proposed limitations on damages and injunctions, when “orphan” copyrighted works are infringed. Continue Reading →

(More KEI RCEP leaks here: /rcep)

Attached (here) is the October 3, 2014 version of the Draft Text, of the Intellectual Property Chapter, for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), Free Trade Agreement, tabled by South Korea in the negotiations. (More about the RCEP here)

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The TPP, following a plethora of other trade agreements involving the United States, the European Union and Japan as trading partners, seeks to expand and extend drug monopolies, by requiring lower standards for the grant of patents, extensions of patent terms, exclusive rights in test data, among other measures. These proposals and polices are designed to have the predictable effect of making drug prices higher.

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Every year USTR issues a list of countries targeted to be subjected to trade pressures over their policies on intellectual property rights. This year’s list was published on April 30, 2015. KEI has a copy of every version of the Special 301 list here: https://www.keionline.org/ustr/special301

USTR describes the list as follows:

The Special 301 Process
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Yesterday, Politico published this story:

Leaked digital single market’s ‘evidence file’ reveals Commission’s ambitions. Documents show policy came before evidence for cybersecurity measures.
By ZOYA SHEFTALOVICH 20/4/15, 1:29 PM CET Updated 21/4/15, 11:33 AM CET
(http://www.politico.eu/article/leaked-digital-single-market-strategy-evidence/)
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The California Assembly Health Committee has published an analysis of AB463, the Pharmaceutical Cost Transparency Act of 2015. The bill will be marked up by the committee on Tuesday (April 21). The analysis was written by Dharia McGrew. It recommends three amendments to the bill, and provides a discussion of the benefits of the required disclosures, with context, and describes the support and opposition. The staff report is attached, and below is a list of 33 groups supporting and 22 opposing the bill. Continue Reading →