Today five groups filed the attached comments to the U.S. Copyright Office and the USPTO regarding the WIPO draft proposal to facilitate access to copyrighted works for persons, who are blind, have visual impairments and other reading disabilities in response to the Federal Register Notice of October 13, 2009.
The comments were signed by
November 9, 2009
Senator Patrick Leahy, Chairman
Senator Jeff Sessions, Ranking Member
Senate Judiciary Committee
Senator Max Baucus, Chairman
Senator Chuck Grassley, Ranking Member
Senate Finance Committee
Representative John Conyers, Chairman
Representative Lamar Smith, Ranking Member
House Committee on the Judiciary
Representative Henry Waxman, Chairman,
Representative Joe Barton, Ranking Member
House Committee on Energy and Commerce
Representative Charles Rangel, Chairman
Representative Dave Camp, Ranking Member
House Committee on Ways and Means
While the 6th Round of negotiations of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is taking place in Seoul, Republic of Korea from November 4-6, 2009, the 5th session of the WIPO Advisory Committee on Enforcement (ACE) met from November 2-4, 2009.
The final stretch of 2009 ushers in a host of meetings at Geneva based institutions including the WIPO Advisory Committee on Enforcement, the WIPO Committee on Development and Intellectual Property, the WTO Ministerial, the WHO Expert Working Group and the Standing Committee on Copyright. To keep abreast of the hive of activity emanating from WIPO, WHO and WTO, here is a roadmap to keep track of the various meetings.
November 2, 2009
African-Arab Seminar on Copyright Limitations and Exceptions: Addressing the Needs of Affected Constituencies
On November 4-6, 2009, the next round of negotiations for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Negotiations (ACTA) will take place in Seoul, Korea. The following is another strange chapter in the secrecy surrounding this negotiation.
Since ACTA was first announced, KEI has pressed the negotiating governments to provide more transparency, including recently, for example
In 1985, the Executive Committee for the Berne Convention and the Intergovernmental Committee of the Universal Copyright Convention published a report by Ms Wanda Noel, a Barrister and Solicitor from Ontario, Canada, on the topic of Problems Experienced by the Handicapped in Obtaining Access to Protected Works, as Annex II to a report of an agenda item “Copyright Problems Raised by the Access by Handicapped Persons to Protected Works.”
Ms Noel’s report is 26 pages, and is a readable and concise presentation of the main issues facing the WIPO SCCR today.
September 30, 2009.
USPTO FOIA Officer
United States Patent and Trademark Office
PO Box 1450
Alexandria, VA 22313-1450
efoia@uspto.govDear FOIA Officer:
India delivered the following intervention at MSF’s workshop at the World Trade Organization Public Forum today. The title of the MSF workshop was “Controversy at customs – the detention of medicines in transit: what impact on access to medicines?”
Controversy at customs – the detention of medicines in transit: what impact on access to medicines?
Wednesday 30 September 2009, 14:15 to 16:15
WTO building, Room A
This is the general statement delivered by the representative of the World Blind Union today (September 29, 2009) at the WIPO General Assemblies.
WBU statement:
The World Blind Union is the worldwide organisation representing the interests of 160 million blind and partially sighted persons in 177 member countries.