Category Access to Knowledge/ Education

Deference, Not Delegation! – WIPO PCT Negotiations

A new PCT Proposal seeks to amend the PCT Regulations so as to provide Member States to enter into a voluntary or opt-in arrangement that would allow such Member state to ‘outsource’ it’s patenting mechanism to another country/ regional treaty office even if it is not a member of such regional treaty. However, a patenting office with a full-fledged examination cadre acts a core component in capacity building for the Member State and serves to protect against imposition of TRIPs plus provisions by being an active part of the national policy discourse. Instead of opting in for full-fledged ‘outsourcing’ of their patenting function, it may be a better idea (in the long term) to develop their internal patent office cadre, develop appropriate IP policies best suited to their stage of development and at the same time, giving deference to the patenting decisions of like-minded countries. Developing countries will stand to benefit more by showing deference to decisions of like countries, rather than delegating the power to make those decisions. By granting a Contracting state the power to grant and reject patents of another State, this proposal could tantamount to introducing substantive patent law provisions through the backdoor: an endeavour to harmonize substantive patent law that the WIPO has failed to achieve over the years.

TRIPS Council Debates IP Improving Lives, Competition Law To Increase Medicines Access

Whether intellectual property rights are improving lives or whether they should be reined in by tools such as competition law to increase access to medicine, education, and innovation, was debated this week at the World Trade Organization committee on intellectual property. Also on the agenda was a suggestion by least-developed countries to create incentives for developed country companies and institutions to transfer technologies for the benefit of the poorest countries.

In Defense Of Fair Use

Copyright law, to be sustainable, calls for a balance. Under copyright law, creators receive exclusive rights to allow or prevent others from making copies of their works for a limited time as an incentive to create. Users receive benefits from the results of the creator’s labor, perhaps through watching, reading or listening to those results. Users may also benefit pursuant to a license to use the works in other ways. Eventually the works fall into the public domain, allowing further reuse by everyone. Recent litigation involving a graffiti artist and a purveyor of sportswear shows how sometimes a flexible mechanism for balancing the copyright entitlements of creators and users makes sense, writes Roy Kaufman.

Civil Society Issues Call For Action On Draft WIPO Copyright Exceptions

This week the World Intellectual Property Organization copyright committee is looking at exceptions and limitations to copyright. A range of stakeholders with opposing views delivered long statements explaining their positions. Some proponents of mandatory international limitations and exceptions for certain actors cited the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals inscribing equitable quality education as a right. Others, like publishers’ associations, said the current international system provides ample possibilities to devise national exceptions and limitations.

Draft Broadcast Treaty Takes Restrictive Approach To Limitations And Exceptions

Sean Flynn writes: At this week’s meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organization Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights, there was renewed attention to the limitations and exceptions provisions of a proposed treaty for broadcast organizations. Unfortunately, the result of that attention was to make the current draft more restrictive for the adoption of exceptions than prior drafts, and more restrictive than are present copyright treaties or the than the Rome Convention the broadcast treaty seeks to update.

WIPO Copyright Committee Opens With Ideas, Questions On Internet, Terms Of Protection

This week's meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organization copyright committee opened today with what officials perceived as good momentum. Argentina tabled a proposal to help discussions on deferred transmissions in the context of a potential treaty protecting broadcasting organisations, which have been a sticking point in negotiations. Civil society, however, voiced concerns on the provisions of a potential treaty protecting broadcasters against signal piracy, underlining the 50-year envisioned protection and the need to carve out strong limitations and exceptions.

Did The WIPO Copyright Committee Just Approve A Group With Mission To Free The World From “Space Lizards’ Control”?

The World Intellectual Property Organization copyright committee this morning started its weeklong meeting by rubber-stamping three nongovernmental organisations as observers, without discussion.

But a look at the website, www.ipcentreug.org, of one of the groups, as provided in the WIPO document as approved, states that the mission of the group is a "global conspiracy investigation institution" whose mission is to "free individuals and organizations from space lizards' control."

Women And IP As Topic To Be Pursued At WIPO Committee On Development And IP

In the wake of the annual intellectual property day this year focusing on women, the World Intellectual Property Organization Committee on Development and IP this week agreed to discuss women and IP at its next session, as the first topic under a new agenda. The committee also agreed to a new project on the role of women in innovation. In other areas, more discussions are foreseen on whether regular international conferences on IP and development can be approved, and on recommendations by an independent expert group on the implementation of the WIPO Development Agenda.