On Tuesday, 29 April 2014, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) will convene a panel at WIPO headquarters entitled, The Tunis Model Law on Copyright for Developing Countries: Is it Time for an Update?
This short note is about giving people the heads up about four upcoming USPTO public meetings relating to copyright policy making: re remixes, digital first sale and calibration of statutory damages. It is a good example of ONE US agency (PTO is within a Task Force) wisely seeking “additional input from the public in order for the Task Force to have a complete and thorough record upon which to make recommendations.” But this blog post is also about a really bad example: USTR.
On 8 April 2014, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland submitted a paper to the 27th session of WIPO’s Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) on the Proposed WIPO treaty on the protection of broadcasting organizations (SCCR/27/3). In its proposal, the UK endeavors to “shed light on a number of different technologies already being used by broadcasters from around the world” including the deployment of the BBC iPlayer and the BBC Red Button services.
The attached letter, dated April 10, 2014 and signed by a bipartisan group of 32 members of the House of Representatives, asks USTR to elevate Canada to the Special 301 “priority watch list,” for “violation of their international obligations” for not granting enough patents on “innovative medicines.” According to the members of Congress signing the letter, Canada is in violation of its WTO TRIPS obligations. Continue Reading
What is on the table for the next Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights: Twenty-Seventh Session (SCCR/27) April 28 to May 2, 2014 (Geneva, Switzerland)?
On April 1, 2014, ViiV, a consortium of Pfizer and GSK, and the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP), announced two new licensing agreements that expand generic competition for dolutegravir (DTG), and integrase inhibitor used for the treatment of adult and pediatric HIV infection. (MPP press release here.) Dolutegravir is a new drug, approved for marketing by the US FDA on August 12, 2013. Continue Reading
Below is a two page excerpt from a March 20, 2014 EU analysis of the TransAtlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations on intellectual property rights, including geographical indications. The memo summarizes in a sentence or two the negotiations in eight types of intellectual property, patents, copyrights, designs, pharmaceutical regulatory test data, plant varieties, trademarks, trade secrets, geographical indications (GIs), as well as negotiations on enforcement, voluntary best practices, and cooperation on third country and multilateral IPR negotiations. Continue Reading
Comments of KEI, regarding USTR Request For Comments From The Public On The Creation Of The Public Interest Trade Advisory Committee And Request For Nominees To That Committee.
Submitted to Regulations.gov on March 25, 2014, under docket number USTR-2014-0005.
Intellectual property issues are an important element of US trade agreements, and according to a recent study by Open Secrets, the most intensively lobbied issue, by far.
On 17 March 2014, the African Group delivered the following opening statement at the Thirty-First Session of the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Geographical Indications (SCT) highlighting the need for an inclusion of an article on technical assistance (with legally binding effect) in the proposed design law treaty. The African Group noted,
On 17 March 2014, the European Union and its Member States issued the following clarion call to the Thirty-First Session of the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Geographical Indications (SCT) urging the committee to “make a clear and unambiguous recommendation to convene a diplomatic conference to the upcoming Extraordinary General Assembly” for a Design Law Formalities Treaty.