The Monday morning session of SCCR 26 went very fast. The agenda was approved in few minutes. Two days will be about the broadcasting treaty, two days will be about libraries and archives and one day on education. 6 side events: artists resale, authors forum launch, authorized entities, IP and video games study, Libraries and archives and Museum and IP, WIPO guide. Continue Reading
STATEMENT OF THE MINISTERS AND HEADS OF DELEGATION FOR THE TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP COUNTRIES
December 10, 2013
Singapore
We, the Ministers and Heads of Delegation for Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam, have just completed a four-day Ministerial meeting in Singapore where we have made substantial progress toward completing the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement.
29 organizations and more than 70 individuals signed on to the final letter opposing copyright terms of life plus seventy years in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP). A PDF version of the final letter is attached below. An earlier version of the letter with a substantial number of signatures was sent to all lead IP negotiators and all chief negotiators in the TPP on Friday, 6 December 2013, in advance of the TPP ministerial.
On 9 December 2013, six members of Congress sent a letter to President Obama citing concerns in the TPP regarding access to health care and affordable medicines. The six members include Representatives Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Michael Michaud (D-ME), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), George Miller (D-CA), Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Peter Welch (D-MA). The letter primarily addresses efforts by USTR that result in greater monopoly power and delay entry of generic medicines, and how such efforts will affect state and federal budgets. Continue Reading
On December 5, 2013, Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) participated in a press conference where she criticized the copyright provisions in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP). In particular, she noted three specific concerns including exporting lengthy copyright term, restrictions on copyright limitations and exceptions, and locking in bad provisions on technological protection measures (TPMs). The full press release is reprinted below:
Rep. Zoe Lofgren on Emerging & Controversial Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) Trade TreatyRich, and not rich, in the TPP, as regards certain IPR obligations involving medical technologies
On November 28, 2013, I wrote a blog about the problems in using the World Bank’s definition of high income, in the specifc context of a proposal by the United States to use this as a measure of which countries in the TPP should have lower standards for intellectual property rights on medical inventions. (See: https://www.keionline.org/node/1834).
Here a different metric is presented, based upon relative incomes, benchmarked against the five highest income countries in the TPP with a population of more than 1 million persons.
2009: Sign-on Letter – Against life + 70 year copyright term in the TPP
This is sign-on letter — Against life + 70 year copyright term in the TPP. See end of letter for details on how to sign.
<-------------------begin letter----------- December 9, 2013 Dear TPP negotiators, In a December 7-10 meeting in Singapore you will be asked to endorse a binding obligation to grant copyright protection for 70 years after the death of an author. We urge you to reject the life + 70 year term for copyright. Continue Reading
The World Bank definition of “high income” has slipped, in relative terms, compared to high income countries in general
The United States has proposed that some (but no means all) IPR obligations involving medicines be modified for countries with incomes below the amount the World Bank defines as “high.” The threshold to be considered a high income country was $12,616 in per capita income for 2012, and is adjusted every year. In contrast, the US per capita income was $50,124 in 2012. (More data here)
TPP provisions on Injunctions, are the TRIPS exceptions in or out?
Introduction
This note looks at the TPP, ACTA and TRIPS provisions on injunctions, and finds the TPP text unclear, as regards the possibility of exceptions to the obligation to make injunctions available in cases in of infringements. We have asked USTR and USPTO to clarify this issue.
Discussion
The TRIPS text on injunctions reads as follows:
Section 2: civil and administrative procedures and remedies
Article 44 – Injunctions.TPP Negotiating Parties’ Counterproposal to the US on Medicines Represents a More Flexible Approach
On November 13, 2013, Wikileaks obtained and published a copy of the consolidated IP negotiating chapter for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP). This leak has allowed the public to learn what is in the text, including about the reported five country counterproposal to the United States’ proposal on pharmaceuticals and medicines.