[Mike Palmedo and Andres Izquierdo] Our submission demonstrates that it is common for countries to allow the use of copyrighted works for educational purposes – even full works – without the authorization of the copyright owner. We reviewed the copyright laws all the Members of the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) and the WIPO Group of Latin American and Caribbean Countries (GRULAC) – a total of 38 countries.
The U.S. Trade Representative has released its request for comments for this year's Special 301 Review, in which it lists countries that are deemed to "adequate and effective protection of intellectual property (IP) rights or deny fair and equitable market access to U.S. persons who rely on IP protection."
The Daily Maverick reports that South African Minister of Trade and Industry Ebrahim Patel and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer will soon meet to discuss a dispute over South Africa's proposed Copyright Amendments Bill. The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has launched a formal review of South Africa's trade benefits through the General System of Preferences (GSP), to investigate whether the Amendments violate the GSP's eligibility criterion that beneficiary countries provide" provide adequate and effective protection of intellectual property rights." It is doing so at the request of the International Intellectual Property Alliance, a US-based trade group representing publishers.
The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has announced an upcoming review of South Africa's eligibility for trade benefits under the General System of Preferences (GSP), a system which allows duty-free imports from developing countries that meet certain criteria. According to the announcement, USTR "is accepting a petition from the International Intellectual Property Alliance based on concerns with South Africa’s compliance with the GSP IP criterion, in the area of copyright protection and enforcement." It will publish a Federal Register Notice requesting comments and announcing the dates of a public hearing.
The U.S. Trade Representative has called for comments for the National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers (NTE). The report, published each year "sets out an inventory of the most significant foreign barriers affecting U.S. exports of goods and services, including agricultural commodities, U.S. intellectual property, U.S. foreign direct investment by U.S. persons, especially if such investment has implications for trade in goods or services, and U.S. electronic commerce."
Former Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Mariam Sapiro has written a memo for the Pass USMCA Coalition arguing that the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) would not prevent a future Congress from shortening the period of marketing exclusivity granted to new biologic medicines in the U.S. She argues that the countries could amend the agreement if the U.S. wanted to pass a law in violation of its current obligations.
Abstract: High prices restrict access to academic journals and books that scholars rely upon to author new research. One possible solution is the expansion of copyright exceptions allowing unauthorized access to copyrighted works for researchers. I test the link between copyright exceptions for health and science researchers and their publishing output at the country-subject level. I find that scientists residing in countries that implement more robust research exceptions publish more papers and books in subsequent years. This relationship between copyright exceptions and publishing is stronger in lower-income countries, and stronger where there is stricter copyright protection of existing works.
The trade ministers from Chile, New Zealand and Singapore have announced a new set of trade negotiations at this month's APEC meeting - the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (“DEPA”). Their statement says "The DEPA seeks to deepen and strengthen cooperation in digital areas, establish new international approaches for digital trade issues, and explore new frontiers in the digital economy, such as digital identities, e-payments, cross-border data flows and artificial intelligence."
How will the recently-concluded United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) impact access to affordable medicines? The USMCA – the renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement (also commonly referred to as NAFTA 2.0) – incorporates many of the harmful provisions from the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), including patent provisions that were suspended by the remaining Parties following the withdrawal of the US. It goes even further than the TPP in extending the exclusivities for biologics to ten years, an unprecedented TRIPS-plus measure. Beyond the intellectual property chapter, multiple other chapters and provisions of the USMCA also have implications for access to affordable, safe and effective medicines.
Democratic lawmakers are again warning that USMCA intellectual property chapter's rules on test data protection for biologics could scuttle the deal. The text grants developers of new biologic drugs a ten year period of exclusivity during which biosimilar competitors cannot win marketing approval based on the innovator's test data.
...PIJIP’s research indicates that American firms in industries that rely on copyright limitations enjoy better outcomes when our trading partners’ limitations are more like fair use. Specifically, US firms in technology and related sectors do better in countries where copyright exceptions permit fair uses and practices of any type of work, by any user, and for any purpose – as long as the use itself is fair to the owner.
This is the second in a series of blogs comparing copyright and technology provisions in eight trade agreements: TPP, CPTPP, USMCA, CETA, RCEP, EU-Mercosur FTA, EU-Japan FTA and the China-Korea FTA. The previous post discussed provisions calling for copyright ‘balance’ and addressing the circumvention of technological protection measures. This one looks at the provisions requiring secondary liability for internet service providers (ISPs) and allowing-or-requiring safe harbors from such liability.