Papers

Papers

  • Joined: March 4, 2014
  • Articles: 358

Copyright as an Obstacle or an Enabler? A European Perspective on Text and Data Mining and Its Role in the Development of AI Creativity

[Eleonora Rosati] Abstract: Text and data mining (TDM) may be performed in a variety of fields and for different purposes. Among other things, TDM techniques may be used to ‘train’ Artificial Intelligence (AI), also for the purpose of AI-driven creativity. In this context, copyright restrictions might be in place, even if copies made of pre-existing content are only used internally and are instrument to the creation of something ‘new’. Recently, in the context of the Directive 2019/790 on copyright in the Digital Single Market, the EU legislature introduced two new mandatory exceptions for TDM.

Monitoring and Filtering: European Reform or Global Trend?

[Giancarlo Frosio and Sunimal Mendis] Abstract: ...Article 17 of the newly enacted EU Directive on the Digital Single Market has come under fire for the heightened level of liability it imposes on online services providers (OSPs) for copyright infringing content stored or transmitted by them. Based on an analysis of case-law from multiple jurisdictions and an overview of industry practice, this chapter seeks to locate the new European reform within a much wider global trend that aims to impose proactive monitoring and filtering obligations on OSPs.

Digitisation, Copyright and the GLAM Sector: Constructing a Fit-For-Purpose Safe Harbour Regime

[Samuel Coad] Abstract: Copyright law does not currently align with the legitimate activities of galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAMs). The GLAM sector plays a central role in collecting and promoting access to cultural works. Increasingly, GLAM institutions are employing innovative digital technologies to expand access to culture and foster greater levels of cultural participation. Despite the utility underlying digitisation, copyright limits the use of digital technologies within the GLAM sphere.

Access to Information of Disabled People on the Web: A Dispute between Accessibility and Digital Rights Management

[Wariya Lamlert and Oranuch Sawetrattanasatian] Abstract: ... the regulations which are beneficial to the accessibility of disabled people are overruled by DRM. More specifically, the challenges posed by DRM include: (1) Negligence of disabled people's rights, (2) Conflict of accessibility, and (3) Ignorance of copyright-related exceptions. This study is a cross disciplinary study probing the issue of disabled people in both legal studies, through relevant legislation, and information studies, through the topic of information access on the Web.

Medicine For All: The Case for a Public Option in the Pharmaceutical Industry

[Dana Brown] Executive Summary: ... Public ownership in pharmaceutical R&D would ensure that more intellectual property related to drug development would be held by public institutions and utilized in the public interest. Right now, a small number of newer medications are responsible for the majority of pharmaceutical spending by public programs like Medicare and Medicaid. Ensuring that new drug development is done in the public interest assures that not only do we get the medications that we need for the most pressing public health concerns (rather than the most profitable health issues), but also that those medications come at an accessible price.

University Patenting: Is Private Law Serving Public Values?

[Lisa Larrimore Ouellette and Rebecca Weires] Abstract: ... What return does the public receive for the tax dollars spent on R&D, primarily at universities? Does privatizing this research through patent law in fact serve public values? From this social welfare perspective, could the Bayh–Dole framework be improved? In this symposium contribution, we seek to tackle these questions, including by identifying the key empirical questions that must be resolved to answer them. In short, we conclude the benefits of university patenting may justify the costs where licensees need exclusivity to undertake the costs of commercialization. For the substantial portion of university patenting that is not necessary for commercialization, evidence of other plausible benefits is not yet sufficient to justify the costs. Much of the data needed to investigate these plausible benefits — and related costs — rests in the hands of universities and federal grant agencies.

Intellectual Property under the Scrutiny of Investor-State Tribunals: Legitimacy and New Challenges

[Clara Ducimetière] In 2009, C.S. Gibson was suggesting that: “With this early coverage of intellectual property in BITs, it is perhaps surprising that there has yet to be a publicly reported decision concerning an IPR-centered investment dispute. Given the trajectory of the modern economy, however, in which foreign investments reflect an increasing concentration of intellectual capital invested in knowledge goods protected by IPRs, this could soon change”. A couple of years later, the first investment cases dealing with IP issues were made public.

Bargaining Failure and Freedom to Operate: Re-Evaluating the Effect of Patents on Cumulative Innovation

[Fabian Gaessler, Dietmar Harhoff and Stefan Sorg] Abstract: We investigate the causal effect of patent rights on cumulative innovation, using large-scale data that approximate the patent universe in its technological and economic variety. We introduce a novel instrumental variable for patent invalidation that exploits personnel scarcity in post-grant opposition at the European Patent Office. We find that patent invalidation leads to a highly significant and sizable increase of follow-on inventions

Legal Challenges For Online Digital Libraries

[Argyri Panezi] Abstract: Libraries have traditionally played a central role in collecting and organizing material and giving wide access to culture and knowledge. Does the existing copyright framework provide enough space for online digital libraries to claim an equivalent central role in the online space? This article explores the legal challenges for online digital libraries’ collection building.

When Markets Fail: Patents and Infectious Disease Products

[Jonathan J. Darrow, Michael S. Sinha and Aaron S. Kesselheim] Abstract: New antibiotics and vaccines aimed at treating or preventing infectious diseases can be highly valuable public health innovations, particularly when these products address unmet medical needs. Although patents are considered the primary means of incentivizing new product development, reduced private investment in this area has led policymakers to create new and sometimes costly supplemental incentive schemes for antibiotics. But the legislative initiatives launched over the past 15 years to overcome the shortcomings of the patent system have had limited success, in part because they do not adequately address the reasons underlying the disconnect between patents and the antimicrobial market.

Patent Pooling to Increase Access to Essential Medicines

[Esteban Burrone et. al.] In 2016, the Lancet Commission on Essential Medicines Policies, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other stakeholders called for the patent pool to expand its mandate to a broader range of patented essential medicines.[5,6] Here, we outline the findings of a released feasibility study on expanding the patent pool’s mandate,[7] laying out the public health case for adapting its model to disease areas beyond the initial three focus diseases. In May 2018, the patent pool acted on the results of the feasibility study and expanded its mandate to include other patented essential medicines.

Are Foreigners Treated Equally Under TRIPS?

[Gaétan de Rassenfosse, Paul H. Jensen, T'Mir Julius, Alfons Palangkaraya, and Elizabeth Webster] Abstract: The TRIPS Agreement, administered by the World Trade Organisation, ensures the smooth functioning of the international patent system. It promises among others that local and foreign firms are treated in the same, non-discriminatory manner. We test for whether national treatment has been upheld in the five largest patent offices and document the existence of a systematic bias against foreign firms in patent examination decisions. We find that filing international patent applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty can reduce some of the bias.