Attached below is a May 20, 2015 letter from Duke researchers to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, setting our problems in the TPP IP Chapter. The letter is signed by Jason Cross, the Director of the Innovation & Technology Policy Lab (ITPLab) at the Sanford School of Public Policy & Duke Law School, at Duke University.
The whole letter (available in PDF format here) is worth reading. Here are a few sections from the letter:
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(More KEI RCEP leaks here: /rcep)
Attached (here) is the October 3, 2014 version of the Draft Text, of the Intellectual Property Chapter, for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), Free Trade Agreement, tabled by South Korea in the negotiations. (More about the RCEP here)
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On May 5, 2015, KEI sent a letter to the USPTO regarding the implementation of the Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances. The letter focuses on concerns that KEI and others have expressed that a treaty implementation by amendment of 17 U.S. Code § 1101, regarding the “Unauthorized fixation and trafficking in sound recordings and music videos,” creates problems, because the statute involves a right that is perpetual and not subject to normal copyright exceptions. Continue Reading →
Every year USTR issues a list of countries targeted to be subjected to trade pressures over their policies on intellectual property rights. This year’s list was published on April 30, 2015. KEI has a copy of every version of the Special 301 list here: https://www.keionline.org/ustr/special301
USTR describes the list as follows:
The Special 301 Process
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Yesterday, Politico published this story:
Leaked digital single market’s ‘evidence file’ reveals Commission’s ambitions. Documents show policy came before evidence for cybersecurity measures.
By ZOYA SHEFTALOVICH 20/4/15, 1:29 PM CET Updated 21/4/15, 11:33 AM CET
(http://www.politico.eu/article/leaked-digital-single-market-strategy-evidence/)
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As part of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) technical assistance and capacity building program, on Thursday, 26 February 2015, the WTO Secretariat convened a Symposium on the TRIPS Agreement for TRIPS Council Members and Observers which brought together negotiators from the 1986–94 Uruguay Round to discuss how the Round introduced intellectual property norms into the architecture of the multilateral trading system. In addition, other experts were brought in to discuss what has happened since the introduction of the TRIPS Agreement, and what augurs for the future.

The Uruguay Round- The Glory Years, Source: World Trade Organization |
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At the February 24, 2015 USTR hearing on Special 301, KEI asked to provide supplemental comments on R&D for the record, and KEI was separately asked by USTR to provide comments on online pharmacies, and by DHHS to comment on the relationship between emergencies and compulsory licensing. (The KEI page on Special 301 is here: /ustr/special301).
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On Wednesday February 24, 2015, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) Special 301 Committee held its annual public meeting following written comments sent earlier by trade associations, corporations and a few public interest groups that follow trade and intellectual property.
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On February 24, 2015, the USTR convened the Special 301 Review, taking testimony almost exclusively from witnesses representing large corporate rights holders. Over the course of the three-and-a-half hour hearing, groups such as Phrma, NAM, IPO, and the misleadingly-named Alliance for Fair Trade with India (an alliance comprised of groups such as Phrma, NAM, MPAA and many other similar groups) as well as foreign-owned multinational Bridgestone, pushed for the watch-listing of countries that fail to implement TRIPS+ measures. Continue Reading →

Andrew S. Goldman is Counsel for Policy and Legal Affairs at KEI. He is an attorney licensed in Maryland and New York, and is admitted before the United States Supreme Court, and the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.
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