On Wednesday, 16 December 2015, at the Fourth Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest (National Law University, Delhi, India), Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) will convene a workshop entitled a “WTO Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and the Three-Step Test for Copyright and Related Rights.”
This panel will address the relationship between the TRIPS Agreement and copyright, as it relates to the three-step test on limitations and exceptions to copyright, with a view to clarifying the flexibilities to which Members are entitled, and, in particular, in fulfilling the principles and objectives of the TRIPS Agreement as set out in Article 7 and Article 8 of the Agreement. The purpose of this panel is to examine possible pathways for WTO Members to agree to undertake text-based negotiations on a WTO Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and the Three-Step Test for Copyright and Related Rights, in order to provide authoritative guidance and certainly as regarding the application of the three-step test, and its interpretation (inspired by the Max Planck Declaration A Balanced Interpretation of the “Three-Step Test” in Copyright Law).
The panel on WTO Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and the Three-Step Test for Copyright and Related Rights Panelists will discuss the flexibilities in the Berne Convention and the TRIPS Agreement not subject to the three-step test. For example, as regards the Berne Convention, while the reproduction right in Berne Article 9(2) is subject to the three-step test, the limitations and exceptions to exclusive rights in Berne Articles 10, 10bis, 11bis(2), 11bis(3), 13(1) and the Appendix Special Provisions Regarding Developing Countries are not subject to the three-step test. The Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations does not specifically provide for a three-step test. Article 6 of the TRIPS Agreement on the exhaustion of rights, and Article 40 of the TRIPS Agreement on the Control of Anti-Competitive Practices in Contractual Licences, are not subject to the three-step test. While certain limitations and exceptions to rights in the Berne Convention and in Part II of the TRIPS are subject to a three-step test, the limitations and exceptions to remedies for infringement in Part III of the TRIPS are not subject to the three-step test, including, for example, the limitations and exceptions to remedies that are provided for in Article 44 of the TRIPS, and more generally the provisions on enforcing rights in the Berne and Rome Conventions are not subject to a three-step test.
The workshop will take place in New Delhi on Wednesday, 16 December 2015 from 14:15 to 15:45 in Room 101 of the National Law University, Delhi.
Our distinguished panel includes the following experts:
Teresa Hackett, Copyright and Libraries Programme Manager, Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL)
James Love, Director, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
GR Raghavender, Joint Secretary to Government of India, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion and Director General, National Productivity Council (NPC).
Luis Villarroel Villalon, Director, Corporación Innovarte