Knowledge Ecology International

On Monday, 29 October 2012, the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments in the first-sale doctrine case, Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons. This case involved the petitioner, Kirtsaeng, purchasing lawfully made copies of the books from Thailand and reselling these books in the United States. John Wiley & Sons asserted, and the Second Circuit agreed, that the first sale doctrine applies only to copies manufactured in the United States and does not apply to foreign made goods. Continue Reading →

On October 25, 2012, the American Medical Students Association (AMSA), Knowledge Ecology International (KEI), U.S. Continue Reading →

After three days, the WIPO intersessional negotiations on copyright exceptions for persons with disabilities adjourned. On July 26, 2012, the SCCR negotiating text (SCCR 24/9) was 26 pages long, with 4051 words, and included 56 brackets, and 20 alternatives. The Final document on Friday (copy here) evening was 26 pages, with 47 brackets, and 22 alternatives.

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The October 18 version of the text is available, here. From the October 17 version, the number of brackets as gone from 65 to 61. The number of alternatives has increased from 24 to 26. Both numbers are higher than the July 26 version of the text, which had 56 brackets and 23 alternatives.

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In recent and current negotiations over copyright norms, the U.S., the European Union and some other high income countries have asked for provisions in the agreement that limit copyright limitations and exceptions to some type of “three-step-test.”

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The following WTO airgram WTO/AIR/4020 (12 October 2012) contains the agenda for the upcoming WTO Council for TRIPS meeting to be held in Geneva from Tuesday, 6 November 2012 to Wednesday, 7 November 2012. The airgram notes that Brazil and the United States have made a written request for an agenda item on “Intellectual Property and Innovation (agenda item M). Agenda item F covers the “Review under Paragraph 8 of the Decision on the Implementation of Paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health”.

Here below is the WTO airgram in full.

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After lengthy informal negotiations on 7 October 2012, the plenary of the WIPO General Assembly (GA) 2012 resumed after 18:00 to present the consensus language on the decision point concerning agenda item 28 (ii) on the Standing Committee on the Law of Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Geographical Indications (SCT). In particular, the GA agreed to expedite the work of the basic proposals for a Design Law Treaty. In 2013, the GA would “take stock of and consider the text, progress made, and decide on convening a diplomatic conference”. Continue Reading →

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