For the past year, a treaty on copyright exceptions for persons who are blind or have other disabilities has been hung up on demands by the European Union to insert provocative language on the so called “three step test” in… Continue Reading →
For the past year, a treaty on copyright exceptions for persons who are blind or have other disabilities has been hung up on demands by the European Union to insert provocative language on the so called “three step test” in copyright into the treaty. The Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement is in the middle of a similar dispute, with the US pushing language that would place the three step test on top of all copyright limitations and exceptions, including those set out a particular cases in the Berne Convention. Continue Reading →
On Tuesday, 19 February 2013, the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments in the case, Bowman v. Monsanto. This case involves the application of the patent exhaustion doctrine to self-replicating technology, in this case, seeds.
On 28 January 2013, the following question tabled by MEP Franziska Keller (Verts/ALE) to the European Union on the EU’s position on extension of WTO TRIPS Agreement transition period for Least Developed Countries was made available. Continue Reading →
The WIPO Special Session negotiating the text of a new treaty on copyright exceptions for persons with disabilities is meeting from February 18 to 22. Yesterday all of the negotiations were behind closed doors, but this morning WIPO made public a copy of the revised negotiating text (available here: https://www.keionline.org/node/1651).
Attached below is the version of the negotiating text from February 18. It includes several new or edited footnotes.
Fn5. concerns language on translation.
Fns 6 and 9 are proposals for language that would permit a country to limit exceptions to cases where “the particular accessible format, cannot be obtained commercially under reasonable terms for beneficiary persons in that [Member State’s] market.”
Fns 7 and 8 are proposals to address the delivery of an accessible work to a person in another country. These are among the more contentiousness issues this week.
As mentioned in a previous piece, the trilateral report by the secretariats of the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO), Promoting Access to Medical Technologies and Innovation: Intersections between public health, intellectual property and trade, covers a lot of ground including but not limited to: 1) the global burden of disease and global health risks, 2) health and human rights, 3) access to essential medicines: an indicator for the fulfillment of the right to Continue Reading →
On Friday, 8 February 2013, KEI filed comments to USTR on the 2013 Special 301 Review. The comments request support for an extension of the transition period for least-developed countries, issues regarding compulsory licenses, patent linkage, exclusive rights over test data, and standards of patentability. With regard to copyright, KEI submitted comments covering issues of technological protection measures and DMCA-style legislation on notice-and-takedown procedures. KEI also made comments regarding the enforcement of intellectual property rights.
On 13 April 2011, Senator Orrin Hatch (Republican-Utah) wrote a letter to then-Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton complaining about Global Fund’s policy on generic procurement and compulsory licensing. With respect to procurement, Sen. Hatch asserted that Global Fund monies were used to procure generic drugs “at unnecessary costs in recipient countries” while branded drugs (all Abbott products) were were available at a lower cost. Continue Reading →
