Month: December 2013

USPTO has issued a press release, announcing the appointment of Michelle K. Lee as Deputy Director of the USPTO, beginning in January 13, 2014. Currently Lee is the Director of the USPTO’s Silicon Valley satellite office. The White House reportedly wanted to appoint Lee as the Director, but may have seen the Deputy position as less controversial. For the near future, Lee will be running the USPTO, and will be the most sophisticated person as regards technology to do so, at least in our memory. According to the USPTO Press Release:
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STATEMENT OF THE MINISTERS AND HEADS OF DELEGATION FOR THE TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP COUNTRIES
December 10, 2013
Singapore

We, the Ministers and Heads of Delegation for Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam, have just completed a four-day Ministerial meeting in Singapore where we have made substantial progress toward completing the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement.

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In preparation for WIPO’s upcoming Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) discussions (16 December 2013 to 20 December 2013) on a proposed Treaty for the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations, the Government of Japan submitted a new proposal, SCCR/26/6 (Draft Treaty on the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations) on 28 November 2013 to be consolidated with the main negotiating text, SCCR/24/10 Corr. Continue Reading →

On 9 December 2013, six members of Congress sent a letter to President Obama citing concerns in the TPP regarding access to health care and affordable medicines. The six members include Representatives Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Michael Michaud (D-ME), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), George Miller (D-CA), Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Peter Welch (D-MA). The letter primarily addresses efforts by USTR that result in greater monopoly power and delay entry of generic medicines, and how such efforts will affect state and federal budgets. Continue Reading →

On December 5, 2013, Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) participated in a press conference where she criticized the copyright provisions in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP). In particular, she noted three specific concerns including exporting lengthy copyright term, restrictions on copyright limitations and exceptions, and locking in bad provisions on technological protection measures (TPMs). The full press release is reprinted below:

Rep. Zoe Lofgren on Emerging & Controversial Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) Trade Treaty

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Professor Joseph Stiglitz has written an open letter to the TPP negotiators, asking that they resist proposals to weaken consumer rights in intellectual property. The letter identifies 12 specific “grave risks” in the IP Chapter, and calls upon negotiators to publish the investor state dispute resolution text.

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USTR recently asked KEI if there were areas in the IP Chapter where we approved of the positions taken by USTR, and the answer is, yes. Given how critical we have been about the text, I will mention a few here.

USTR now “supports a more flexible approach under which partners could retain reasonable patent pre-grant opposition procedures.” This is welcome, and useful.

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In a word, MSF is disappointed.

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