[Post from cis-india.org] India’s Copyright Act is a relatively balanced instrument that recognises the interests of consumers through its broad private use exception, and by facilitating the compulsory licensing of works that would otherwise be unavailable. However, the compulsory licensing…
On Wednesday, the Indian Supreme Court will begin final arguments in Novartis’ challenge of Section 3(d) of the country’s patent law. In 2006, the Patent Office rejected Novartis’ patent application for the cancer drug imatinib mesylate (sold under the brand…
The White House’s office of the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC) recently requested comments from the public as part of the process of developing a new Joint Strategic Plan on Intellectual Property Enforcement. It received 254 comments, all of…
In a recent interviewwith Le Nouvel Observateur, French Culture Minister Aurélie Filippetti said that she will reduce funding HADOPI – the French agency that enforces online copyright through a graduated response: “Within the context of budget cutting, I’ll request operational…
A coalition of Thai civil society groups has written a letter opposing Gilead’s patents for the fixed-dose combination of AVR tenofovir and emtricitaine (TDF+FTC, sold under the brand name Truvada), an important first-line therapy for the treatment of HIV The…
The British government has announced that it will make government-funded research freely available beginning next year. The Research Council’s UK announcement states that the new policy “will apply to all qualifying publications being submitted for publication from 1 April 2013”…
Petros Petridis Panteio University, Athens According to the major copyright industry groups, Greece has among the highest rates of “piracy” in the European Union. The Business Software Alliance recently put this number at 61% of the software market—exceeded only by…
The petition to the White House to require public access to the published results of taxpayer funded research has taken off – gaining more than 13,500 signatures in less than three days. In order to get a response, a petition…
Earlier this month, the Malaysian AIDS council, an umbrella group of 49 civil society groups, asked the Malaysian Minister of Health to begin a government sponsored program to provide second line treatment to people with HIV In order to make…
[originally posted to the Communia website under a CC-BY license] The book “The Digital Public Domain: Foundations for an Open Culture”, edited by Melanie Dulong de Rosnay and Juan Carlos De Martin as an output of the Communia Thematic Network,…
[Federal Register, vol 77, no. 77]: Pursuant to a request from Congress, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is seeking comments as to whether the United States should identify and bar from publication and issuance certain patent applications…
Both sides appeal in ongoing civil society lawsuit for compulsory license A Colombian administrative judge has ruled that Abbott Laboratories and the Ministry of Health threatened and violated collective rights to public health by maintaining the price of an HIV…