Author: James Love

These were copied from David Hammerstein’s twitter feed, October 3, 2010.

http://twitter.com/#!/dahammerstein

• Treaty Visually Impaired before European Parliament at aprox. 15:30. Webstream: bit.ly/kQgrDf info: bit.ly/oDLbL0
• This is the correct link for the webstreaming of Treaty of visually impaired before the European Parliament: bit.ly/PwS9T
• Session begins in EP´s Petition Committee on Treaty for Visually Impaired. Chris Friend, World Blind Union condemns us to “book famine”

Continue Reading →

Two areas where ACTA is inconsistent with US law, injunctions and damages
KEI Policy Brief, 2011:2
30 September 2011, revised 3 October 2011
James Love and Krista Cox

As the U.S. is reportedly about to sign ACTA, we wanted to point out two important areas where ACTA is not consistent with U.S. law. These are the sections of ACTA dealing with injunctions and damages. Below we have included the text from ACTA and the WTO TRIPS agreement on these two topics.

Continue Reading →

This was read today, September 30, 2011, at the WIPO GA

Agenda Item 33 (iii), the Advisory Committee on Enforcement

Continue Reading →

This was read today, September 30, 2011, at the WIPO GA

Agenda Item 33(i) Standing Committee on the Law of Patents

KEI agrees with the perceptive and constructive comments offered by South Africa on behalf of the Africa Group, and India, on behalf of the Development Agenda Group (DAG).

Continue Reading →

The 49th WIPO General Assembly began today, in a packed hall of the CICG convention center. The agenda and other documents for the meeting is available here. The Director General, Francis Gurry, began his talk focusing on financial challenges, and, among other things, several references to the work of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR). Gurry talked about progress on the AV treaty, and progress on an “instrument” for persons with disabilities. He talked about the new SCCR work program on the broadcast treaty. He did not mention the WIPO work on libraries, education or other copyright limitations and exceptions issues.

The meeting is webcast. Countries have been given 5 minutes for opening statements.
Continue Reading →

In 2000, President Clinton asked Donna Shalala, then the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), to write to Representative Jan Schakowsky. Schakowky had asked President Clinton to provide the World Health Organization with royalty free rights to health care products, for which the United States holds rights.

Schakowsky was pressing President Clinton to share its rights, under 35 USC 202(c)(4) — a federal statute that reserves certain rights in patents where the federal government provided funding for the invention.

Continue Reading →

On July 19, I read a press release that annouced that:

Continue Reading →

As the UN meets to discuss non-communicable diseases, one area of controversy is the effort by White House trade officials and the European Commissioner for Trade to block any mention in a Political Declaration of the November 14, 2001 WTO Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health.

This note explains why the Doha Declaration was important, and what USTR and DG-Trade are trying to do in the NCD resolution. I will start with a very quick history of the events that led to the 2001 WTO resolution.

Continue Reading →

Michael W. Michalak, former Ambassador to Vietnam, pressured Vietnam on behalf of PhRMA.

Cables recently published by Wikileaks illustrate the degree to which the U.S. has been engaged in writing laws and training judges and government officials in Vietnam, on a wide range of pharmaceutical and intellectual property issues.

Continue Reading →