European Copyright Society: Limitations and Exceptions as Key Elements of the Legal Framework for Copyright in the EU

[Cristophe Geiger; ECS Opinion on the Judgment of the CJEU in Case C-201/13 Deckmyn] Abstract: In this opinion, the European Copyright Society (ECS) puts on record its views on the issues raised by the Judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in Case C-201/13, Deckmyn, which departs from the doctrine of strict interpretation of exceptions and limitations in cases in which fundamental rights such as freedom of expression are involved. Click here for more.

Union for Affordable Cancer Treatment Letter to US Trade Representative Michael Froman Re: Compulsory License on Dasatinib Patents

[Manon Ress] We represent the Union for Affordable Cancer Treatment (UACT) and more generally people who share the conviction that cancer drugs should be affordable and available to all. We are writing because reports in Indian newspapers, television stations and blogs suggest that you, in your capacity as the head of the office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), are pressuring the Indian government to deny patients access to affordable generic versions of dasatinib, a drug used to treat a rare form of leukemia. The issue involves patents held by Bristol-Myers Squibb for a cancer drug, marketed by BMS under the trade name Sprycel, that treats both Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). Dasatinib is a critical drug that fills an important gap in treatment, particularly for patients who have developed a resistance to imatinib (a drug sold by Novartis under the trade names Gleevec or Glivec). Click here for more.

TPP –Section-by-Section Analysis of Some Provisions People Aren’t Talking About

[Kimberlee Weatherall] This paper analyses certain key provisions of the leaked 16 May 2014 text of the TPP IP Chapter – mostly, the ones people haven’t been talking about: particularly the trade mark, designs, and geographical indications provisions, as well as rules regarding national treatment, the preamble or objectives clauses, and the criminal liability provisions. It also makes some limited comments about the interaction between the chapter and investor-state dispute settlement. Click here for the full paper on SSRN.

See also:

  • Inside U.S. Trade. TPP Ministers Fail to Bridge Gaps Over Pharma IP Transition Mechanisms.
  • Erik Monasterio and  Deborah Gleeson. The Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement: Exacerbation of inequality for patients with serious mental illness. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry.

New Policy Paper on the Re-Use of Public Sector Information in Cultural Heritage Institutions

[Paul Keller] In 2013 the European Union enacted Directive 2013/37/EU amending Directive 2003/98/EC on the re-use of public sector information (PSI). The 2013 directive is an important pillar of the European Union’s open data strategy. It establishes the general principle that public sector bodies’ available information shall be reusable in accordance with a number of conditions, such as open formats, terms and conditions. Member States are asked to transpose the new rules into domestic law by 18 July 2015, i.e. about nine months from now. One of the major new features of the PSI directive is the inclusion in its scope of libraries (including university libraries), museums and archives. However, if Member States are not careful, the implementation of the changes required by the new directive could do more harm than good to cultural heritage institutions. Click here for more.

Intellectual Property Strategy and the Long Tail: Evidence from the Recorded Music Industry

[Laurina Zhang] Digitization has impacted firm profitability in many media industries by lowering the cost of copying and sharing creative works. I examine the impact of digital rights management (DRM) – a prevalent strategy used by firms in media industries to address piracy concerns – on music sales. I exploit a natural experiment, where different labels remove DRM from their entire catalogue of music at different times, to examine whether relaxing an album’s sharing restrictions increases sales. Using a large sample of albums from all four major record labels, I find that removing DRM increases digital music sales by 10% but relaxing sharing restrictions does not impact all albums equally. It increases the sales of lower-selling albums (i.e., the “long tail”) significantly (30%) but does not benefit top-selling albums. These results suggest that the optimal strength of copyright depends on the distribution of products in firms’ portfolio. Click here for the full paper on SSRN.