Knowledge Ecology International

The 19th session of the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP) meets in Geneva from 25 February 2013 to 28 February 2013. The 18th session of the SCP ended on a contentions note as WIPO member states could not agree upon the future work of the Committee. In fact, SCP 19 was initially scheduled for November 2012 but was delayed till February 2013 as WIPO’s membership thought informal discussions were required to produce a successful outcome for the future work of the patent committee.

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WIPO is spending five days in a special session to work on the text for a treaty on copyright exceptions for persons who are blind or have other disabilities.

KEI has obtained a copy of the latest version as of Friday morning, which is attached below.

The first four days have been consumed with highly technical but important debates of the international rules for copyright exceptions. The US and the EU are demanding that all sorts of language be put into the treaty referring to a three step test to restrict the use of exceptions.

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These are KEI’s February 17, 2013 comments on the the Bayer appeal of the compulsory license on Nexavar patents.

Comments on the the Bayer appeal of the compulsory license on Nexavar patents.

February 17, 2013

The dispute is Bayer Corporation v Natco Pharma Limited, and is being heardbefore the Intellectual Property Appellate Board At Chennai (O.R.A. no. 35/PT/2012).

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Attached below is the version of the negotiating text from 20 February 2013. It includes several new or edited footnotes. We expect the WIPO Special Session of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) to discuss the new text at the plenary which is scheduled to commence at 10, Wednesday, 21 February 2013.

Footnote 10 is placed within Article E of the draft treaty text on “Importation of Accessible Format Copies” which states

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For the past year, a treaty on copyright exceptions for persons who are blind or have other disabilities has been hung up on demands by the European Union to insert provocative language on the so called “three step test” in copyright into the treaty. The Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement is in the middle of a similar dispute, with the US pushing language that would place the three step test on top of all copyright limitations and exceptions, including those set out a particular cases in the Berne Convention. Continue Reading →

On Tuesday, 19 February 2013, the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments in the case, Bowman v. Monsanto. This case involves the application of the patent exhaustion doctrine to self-replicating technology, in this case, seeds.

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On 28 January 2013, the following question tabled by MEP Franziska Keller (Verts/ALE) to the European Union on the EU’s position on extension of WTO TRIPS Agreement transition period for Least Developed Countries was made available. Continue Reading →

The WIPO Special Session negotiating the text of a new treaty on copyright exceptions for persons with disabilities is meeting from February 18 to 22. Yesterday all of the negotiations were behind closed doors, but this morning WIPO made public a copy of the revised negotiating text (available here: https://www.keionline.org/node/1651).

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Attached below is the version of the negotiating text from February 18. It includes several new or edited footnotes.

Fn5. concerns language on translation.

Fns 6 and 9 are proposals for language that would permit a country to limit exceptions to cases where “the particular accessible format, cannot be obtained commercially under reasonable terms for beneficiary persons in that [Member State’s] market.”

Fns 7 and 8 are proposals to address the delivery of an accessible work to a person in another country. These are among the more contentiousness issues this week.