Author: James Love
Four Department of State cables on Thailand, for Special 301 Review (Years 2009 to 2011)
The following are four US Department of State cables discussing the status of Thailand as regards the USTR Special 301 review. KEI recently received the cables from the US Department of State in response to an earlier FOIA request.
KEI comment on WTO decision to extend TRIPS deadline for LDCs to July 1, 2021
The WTO TRIPS Council has just approved an extension of TRIPS Obligations for Least Developed Countries until July 1, 2021, a new eight year extension. The new extension comes with some restrictions, but provides more freedom than the previous extension, which had a widely criticized and now eliminated “no rollback” clause. The decision stops well short of what the LDCs had proposed.
Least Developed Country (LDC) membership in WIPO and the Berne Convention
Much of the April negotiations on the treaty for copyright exceptions for persons with disabilities was spent discussing the issue of countries that are not members of the WTO, or the Berne Convention, or countries classified by the UN as least developed countries (LDCs), and currently not bound by the TRIPS agreement provisions on copyright.
Athens meeting on access to medicine
The agenda for the meeting is here: http://tacd-ip.org/archives/945
My slides are here.
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Updated: “Final” version of the text for the CEWG “Decisions Point”
The drafting group has finished its work, and below is the “Final” text on the “Decisions Point” that will accompany the resolution on the CEWG work, it is very similar to the text from Friday, but stronger in some areas and perhaps not as good in some others. For example, on the topic of the finance mechanism, reference to “voluntary” has been eliminated.
Friday text: “demonstrate voluntary and sustainable financing mechanism.”
Saturday text: “propose and foster financing mechanisms including innovative, sustainable and pooled funding.”
DG Trade’s May 17, 2013 briefing on the IP Chapter of the TTIP
On May 17, 2013, DG trade held a public briefing on the IP Chapter for the TTIP and the E/Japan trade agreement. The TTIP discussion was led by Pedro Velasco Martins, the Deputy Head of Unit for Intellectual Property and Public Procurement. Unlike some recent USTR briefings, which were off-the-record, this was on-the-record meeting, and DG Trade even displayed a suggested twitter hash tag.
Notes on R&D and EU market from May 16, 2013 event in Parliament on crisis is access to medicine in Europe
Below is a PDF from my presentation at the May 16, 2013 event in the EU Parliament on the Economic Crisis and Access to Medicines in Europe. While the main purpose of my talk was to discuss delinkage, I began with some data on the EU market and R&D outlays. I have pulled out one figure and two tables from the presentation and offer some comments here.
The figure below simulates the shape of the demand curve for Europe, if one assumes a constant elasticity of income for products, and insurance in each market.
Business Europe seeks to block WIPO treaty on copyright exceptions for persons who are blind or have other disabilities
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| Markus Beyrer thinks blind people should not have robust copyright exceptions, because it might set a precedent for patents on health or climate technologies |
UK IPO office releases emails that show close collaboration with publishers on WIPO treaty for the blind
On May 10, 2013, a very revealing freedom of information request was made available from the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO). The request had been filed on April 14, 2013 by the journalist Glyn Moody, for: