On March 3, 2016, KEI filed a comment with the U.S. Copyright Office in Docket No. 2015-8, regarding 17 U.S.C. § 1201.
The comment made specific recommendations regarding changes to the rulemaking procedure, the anti-trafficking provisions, and permanent exemptions, and also suggested requiring a registration and application process, as well as payment of a fee, for the DRM/TPM seeking legal protection under the law.
On Thursday, 11 February 2016, five groups including Knowledge Ecology International (KEI), Oxfam, Stop AIDS, Third World Network (TWN) and Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) sent a letter to Dr. Francis Gurry, Director-General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) highlighting our concerns with statements expressed by WIPO relating to the United Nations Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines (HLP). To date, we have yet to hear any formal response from WIPO. Continue Reading
(More on Colombia here: /colombia)
Andrea Carolina Reyes Rojas informs us that a committee appointed to consider a request for a compulsory license on the leukemia drug Imatinib has decided that there are public interest reasons to do so.
A copy of the decision is available here. Andrew Goldman shares some thoughts and context here.
(More on Colombia here: /colombia)
In Colombia, a technical committee has issued a recommendation that a declaration be made that a compulsory license on imatinib (Gleevec) would be in the public interest. Under Colombian law, this is an important intermediary step prior to the actual grant of a compulsory license.
Attached below are the four submissions for which KEI was the lead author to the UN Secretary General’s High Level Panel (HLP) on Access to Medicine.
DHHS has declared a public health emergency over the Zika virus, and authorized emergency use of diagnostic tests. (Copy here)
(An expanded, edited and better version of this is available in our March 4, 2016 reply comment to USTR, available here: https://www.keionline.org/node/2440)
These were my notes from my testimony for KEI at today’s USTR Special 301 hearing
Big market puts countries on the #special301 watch list
The dearth of recent compulsory licenses out of India has led to speculation that the Government has made an agreement not to issue such licenses.
On reviewing submissions for the Office of the United States Trade Representative’s upcoming 2016 Special 301 Review, several industry documents confirm that such an agreement exists.
The submission by the United States Chamber of Commerce’s Global Intellectual Property Center states:
KEI is one of the non-government entities speaking at the USTR Special 301 hearing on Tuesday. We each get 7 minutes of testimony and 3 minutes of questions. (The schedule is here).
KEI intervention: TTIP Stakeholder events Round 12, Brussels (24 February 2016)
A Positive Agenda for TTIP – What we would like to see in the TTIP that would expand access to knowledge?
1) Marrakesh Treaty ratification
The TTIP should include an obligation to ratify and to implement the WIPO Marrakesh Treaty for Persons Who Are Blind for Otherwise Disabled, in order to expand access to accessible works to persons with disabilities in the European Union and the United States, as well as in other countries.