Knowledge Ecology International

This week, over 90 academics, practitioners and public interest organizations from five continents gathered at a meeting convened by American University’s Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property (PIJIP) to analyze the official text of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). The text was released for the first time in April, 2010, after years of secretive negotiations.

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The EU position came out in a proposal for a Joint Recommendation with 9 articles in 11 pages. It is hard to believe but it is worst than the US proposal and it is even worst than nothing. It is an outrageous “roll back” recommendation. It does make clear who’s the boss in the commission. The publishers apparently. Their proposal is bold. Here’s a quick read:

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In briefings about the WIPO proposal for a treaty for persons who are blind or have other disabilities, the U.S. government has sent mixed signals regarding the legality of exporting of accessible works created under exceptions in U.S. law. In some informal briefings and conversations, the U.S. government has said such exports are allowed under U.S. law. At other times, they say they are not.

KEI has obtained a June 12, 2008 memo from the U.S. Copyright Office, written by Neil Conley to David Carson, that analyzes the possible extraterritorial effects of the Chafee Amendment.

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A new copyright bill in Canada includes extensive provisions about the export of accessible works for persons with a “print disability.” The good news is that they embrace a reasonably good definition of disabilities covered. It goes down hill from there.

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Here below is India’s intervention on ‘TRIPS plus IPR Enforcement’ as delivered at the WTO TRIPS Council on 9 June 2010.

On June 7, 2010 medicine access advocacy groups joined together in asking that George Washington University (GWU) put a stop to its industry-sponsored intellectual property (IP) summits and to take an academic, evidenced-based approach to conferences it conducts in India. Continue Reading →

In 2006 the Supreme Court paved the way for, in effect, judicial compulsory licensing by holding in eBay v. MercExchange that, contrary to wide-scale practice at the time, permanent injunctions should not automatically issue upon a finding of patent infringement. Continue Reading →

There is a negotiation in the WIPO SCCR over the work program on copyright limitations and exceptions for persons with disabilities. Some countries favor a negotiation on a binding treaty. The US government is asking that the SCCR set aside work on the treaty, and focus instead on a non-binding recommendation to address a limited set of issues relating to the import and export of works created under an exception. The US government asserts that treaties would take a very long time to negotiate, ratify and implement. Continue Reading →

On 4 June 2010, Dr. Margaret Chan (Director General, World Health Organization) announced Dr. Anne Marie Worning as ‘acting Director, Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property (PHI)’. According to the WHO website,

Dr Anne Marie Worning, a Danish national, is the Executive Director of the Director-General’s Office since April 2009.

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