KEI Notes & Comments at TTIP Seventh Round of Negotiations at Stakeholder Event

The 7th Round of the negotiations of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) Agreement began Monday September 29, 2014 in the United States. This round’s paltry effort at transparency, the TTIP Stakeholder Engagement Day, was held at the suburban 4-H conference center in Chevy Chase, MD. Although the information packet for the event included public transport instructions, the location was difficult to access for any attendees without a car, and even then, parking was extremely limited. Continue Reading

Gilead in 2013: AbbVie sought to eliminate competition and dominate market for HCV drugs

I had not seen this lawsuit filed by Gilead against AbbVie and Abbott before. It is an interesting read. According to Gilead:

Abbott executives and “inventors” conspired and carried out the initial steps of the company’s scheme by filing serial fraudulent patent applications asserting that Abbott had invented methods of treating HCV using PSI-7977 as well as the Gilead Combination (as well as thousands of combinations of Abbott’s other competitors’ HCV compounds). The first of these applications is dated October 21, 2011.

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US Court issues compulsory license for know-how protected as trade secret

In “Compulsory License as a Remedy for Trade Secret Misappropriation, Dennis Crouch writes* about a July 1, 2014 decision in Sabatino Bianco, M.D. v. Globus Medical, 2:12-cv-00147 (E.D. Tex 2014). The decision by Judge Bryson, a U.S. Circuit Judge in the Eastern District of Texas, concerns trade secrets which:

“consisted of ideas for the design of a medical device known as an adjustable intervertebral spacer or implant. Intervertebral spacers are used in spinal surgery to replace damaged discs in patients’ spines.”

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KEI statement on library exceptions at WIPO SCCR 28

These are the notes from my statement on behalf of KEI on July 3, 2014, during the WIPO SCCR 28 discussions of principles and objectives for library copyright exceptions. The WIPO discussions on July 3 focused on the four topics in the US paper, SCCR/26/8.

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I will start with comments on the statements made by the Federation of Independent Journalists, which were critical of library copyright exceptions, and authors who don’t make a living directly from royalties.

All authors have used libraries. Some authors still use libraries.

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Discussion on Orphan Works and Mass Digitization at US Copyright Office, March 10-11, 2014

The US Copyright Office held a two day roundtable event on the topic, “Orphan Works and Mass Digitization.” The two days were split into ten sessions, with extensive panels convened for each roundtable discussion. The meetings were held in the Montpelier Room at the Madison building of the Library of Congress, with the exception of the afternoon panels on the second day, which was held downstairs in the hearing room of the Copyright Office. Continue Reading