Internet Governance Forum
The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) was a product of the WSIS-Tunis Agenda and was given a fairly open-ended and ambiguous mandate. Continue Reading
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Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and WIPO Treaty for Sharing Accessible Formats of Copyrighted Works
In a February 2009 article, I described why we need a Word Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) treaty for people with reading disabilities and why the US delegation at WIPO should support the WBU proposal and even become a leading force promoting it in its new form, a proposal by the governments of Brazil, Ecuador and Paraguay tabled at WIPO in May 2009. Continue Reading
Humanitarian Uses of Patented Inventions
This note concerns two areas of policy concerning humanitarian uses of patents. (1), a recommended exception to patent rights for humanitarian uses, and (2), the licensing of patents for humanitarian uses. Both examples focus on access to essential medical technologies.… Continue Reading
KEI Brownbag on Bilski case: Scope of Patentable Subject Matter
Date: September 10, 2009
On September 10, 2009 KEI hosted a brownbag lunch to discuss the scope of patentable subject matter, focusing specifically on the implications for life-science patents of the Supreme Court’s forthcoming review of the Bilski Federal Circuit opinion. This is the first time since 1981 that the US Supreme Court will address the limits of patentable subject matter.
The key U.S. statue on this issue is Section 101 of the patent law:
35 USC 101. Inventions patentable
Obama Administration role in the regulation of prices for medicine and medical devices in Japan
On July 6, 2009, a report of the the U.S.-Japan Regulatory Reform and Competition Policy Initiative was presented to President Obama and Prime Minister Aso of Japan. The report provides an insight into the degree that the U.S. government tries to influence prices for medicines and medical devices in foreign markets. Here, as in other foreign markets, the U.S. government seeks to raise prices, and to give industry an even greater role in setting the prices for their products.
NYT: PhRMA to support Baucus version of health bill
According to a report by Duff Wilson in the Sunday New York Times, Much of PhRMA’s $150 million in advertising will be spent pushing Senator Baucus’s version of the health “reform” legislation.
Rejetez le traité des radiodiffuseurs
WIPO Broadcasting Treaty
For older documents, see CPTech webpage on WIPO Broadcasting Treaty
For commentary, including breaking developments, see KEI blogs on the treaty.
Proposal for Treaty of Access to Knowledge (May 10, 2005 Draft)
The following is the text that was prepared in 2005 as a
possible basis for a treaty on Access to Knowledge. The text
was prepared in response to an August 2004 proposal by Argentina
and Brazil for a WIPO Development Agenda, that included in its
original proposal, a possible treaty on access to knowledge. The
process that created this specific draft text included three
elements.
People vs. Authors Guild
When Amazon released the Kindle 2 electronic book reader on February 9, 2009, the company announced that the device would read e-books aloud using text-to-speech (TTS) technology. Under pressure from the Authors Guild, Amazon has announced that it will give authors and publishers the ability to disable the text-to-speech function on any or all of their e-books available for the Kindle 2.
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