WEBINAR: Copyright, Trade and a TRIPS Wavier for COVID-19
[WTO Public Forum Panel cohosted by PIJIP | September 28, 2021 | 9:05am EDT] Copyright is implicated in the treatment, prevention and containment of COVID and in the response to other emergencies. Many countries lack express rights in their copyright laws to enable remote and digital uses of works for education and scientific research, to repair medical devices requiring software, and for public health uses of tools, such as computational algorithms, needed to produce vaccines. This session will discuss the elements of copyright policy that are needed to respond to the COVID pandemic and other emergencies, and how trade and international intellectual property law should accommodate such measures. Click here for more information, and to register.
WEBINAR: The Future of the TRIPS Agreement Post COVID-19
[WTO Public Forum event hosted by the South Centre. September 29 | 16:30–17:30 CET] Disciplines on intellectual property protection are part of the multilateral trade system through the WTO TRIPS Agreement. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to bear again the tension between the protection of intellectual property rights and public health, which had been addressed in 2001 through the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public health. Having in view the TRIPS flexibilities, this session will discuss the role of interpretation, temporary waivers and amendments in dealing with such tension and what further actions could be taken under the WTO rules in order to promote access to medical products for all. Click here for more information, and to register.
Open Letter to Presidents of Latin America and the Caribbean: COVID-19 Vaccine Access
[Civil society letter endorsed by 81 organizations and individuals] …Vaccine production has been insufficient to vaccinate the entire world population, therefore we consider that it is necessary to restructure the acquisition and production models to improve the availability of doses at the most favorable price for our region, which at the same time is going through a serious economic crisis. Therefore, it is imperative that pharmaceutical companies share technology and knowledge with other qualified producers as soon as possible and it is important that the countries of the region take a firm position towards the industry. Click here for more.
Blind S.A. and Section 27 Celebrate Court Order Declaring South Africa’s Copyright Act Unconstitutional, and Advance to Constitutional Court for Confirmation
[Section 27 press release] Blind SA and SECTION 27 welcome an order of the High Court of South Africa (Gauteng, Pretoria Division) declaring that the Copyright Act of 1978 is invalid for violating the rights of people who are blind or visually impaired. The case BlindSA v Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition (and others) was heard on the unopposed roll before Judge Mbongwe yesterday 21 September 2021, who made our draft order an order of the court. This is a massive victory for people who are blind or visually impaired, as well as learners with disabilities, who will now be able to access works under copyright in accessible formats more easily. Click here for more.
See also: Linda Daniels for the Maverick Citizen. Court rules Copyright Act unconstitutional for limiting the visually impaired from accessing books. Link.
Canada’s Political Choices Restrain Vaccine Equity: The Bolivia-Biolyse Case
[Muhammad Zaheer Abbas] The COVID-19 pandemic has already claimed more than 4.6 million lives and caused significant economic harm. The Coronavirus is still circulating to cause further damage. In this context, this research paper argues that Canada’s political choices have restrained the equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. Click here for more.
Accelerating COVID-19 Vaccine Production Via Involuntary Technology Transfer
[Olga Gurgula] This policy brief explains that the currently discussed proposals at the WTO related to increasing the production of COVID-19 vaccines, including the EU proposal to clarify the use of compulsory licensing and the submission by South Africa and India on the intellectual property (IP) waiver, require complementary mechanisms to rapidly improve the production of COVID-19 vaccines that are urgently needed today. Click here for more.
Introducing the Copyright Anxiety Scale
[Amanda Wakaruk, Céline Gareau-Brennan and Matthew Pietrosanu] Abstract: Navigating copyright issues can be frustrating to the point of causing anxiety, potentially discouraging or inhibiting legitimate uses of copyright-protected materials. A lack of data about the extent and impact of these phenomena, known as copyright anxiety and copyright chill, respectively, motivated the authors to create the Copyright Anxiety Scale (CAS). This article provides an overview of the CAS’s development and validity testing. Results of an initial survey deployment drawing from a broad cross-section of respondents living in Canada and the United States (n = 521) establishes that the phenomenon of copyright anxiety is prevalent and likely associated with copyright chill. Click here for more.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: #IPWeek Workshop on Copyright and the Digital Economy
[Pedro Mizukami] InternetLab, Fundación Karisma, and the Ford Foundation would like to invite you to a workshop session on copyright and the digital economy held on October 28 and 29 as part of the 2021 Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest’s #IPWEEK2021. In line with the Global Congress mandate of bridging research and advocacy, the workshop will provide participants with a forum to present materials for feedback and discussion, in a structured, dynamic format, with opportunities for publication in two different tracks. Deadline – October 14, 2021. Click here for more.