On April 15, 2013, the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) sent a letter to Teresa Stanek Rea, the Acting Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and the Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, setting out the IPO “concerns” about the proposed WIPO treaty for persons who are blind or visually impaired. (Copy here).
On 1 May 2013, USTR released its 2013 Special 301 Report. Ukraine was put on the Priority Foreign Country list this year, a designation not used by USTR for several years. USTR’s 2013 report spends more than six pages discussing China and two full pages on India. Below are some comments regarding this year’s report.
Least Developed Countries
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Attached is the final version of the negotiating text that will be considered at the diplomatic conference in June 17 to 28, 2013 in Marrakesh, Morocco.
88 brackets in text, plus 17 “Alternative” versions of text.
8 references to: “do not conflict with the normal exploitation of the work,” plus 3 additional references the “three-step test.”
11 references to technological protection measures
There is so much that one could say about today’s decision, it is hard to know where to start.
This is a copy of the negotiating text for the India-EU Broad-based Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA), also referred to as the India/EU FTA. It does not include Article 6, which I assume concerns patents, or have any text for Article 9 on Geographical Indications. The text includes country positions. We are not certain of the date of this text. KEI has some commentary at /node/1692
Consolidated draft India-EU FTA (BTIA)
IPR chapter
Art. 1 – Definition [Agreed]
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) comments
U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Ways and Means, Subcommittee on Trade, March 13, 2013 Hearing on U.S.-India Trade Relations
Name: James Love
Organization: Knowledge Ecology International
Address: 1621 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 500, Washington, DC 20009
Phone Number: 1.202.332.2670
Contact E-mail Address: James.Love@KEIonline.Org
Title of Hearing: U.S.-India Trade Relations
Introduction
On March 13, 2013, the U.S. House of Representative held a hearing on U.S.-India Trade Relations. Among the several topics under discussion were “the issuance of compulsory licenses, patent revocations, and other policies on pharmaceuticals” in India.
The 16th round of negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) took place at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel in Singapore in early March.
Informed sources have provided KEI the following draft text of the IP chapter under negotiation between the European Union and India in current free trade agreement talks. KEI will provide analysis of these provisions in due course.
**Updated 19 March 2013, after the Supreme Court released its opinion in Kirtsaeng ruling to permit parallel importation of copyrighted works**