QUT News, 22 February 2024 22nd February 2024 The role of intellectual property rights in technology transfer to developing countries and least developed countries to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is a major theme of a new international…
Australian Centre for Health Law Research QUT Faculty of Business and Law The Gibson Room, Level 10, Z Block, Gardens Point, QUT Friday, the 8th December 2023 Overview The Australian Centre for Health Law Research is hosting a one-day, in-person,…
QUT News 29th November 2023 QUT researcher Professor Matthew Rimmer, who contributed to the Senate report on the new tobacco regulation bill, has praised the legislation as laying the foundation for law reform on regulation of tobacco and e-cigarettes. Professor…
[QUT] Australia needs a new, independent regulatory body and specific offences, penalties and remedies to curb deceptive ‘greenwashing’ marketing claims after the ACCC found the practice was rife among Australian companies... QUT law Professor Matthew Rimmer made the call in a submission to the Senate Standing Committee on Environment and Communications Inquiry into “greenwashing … and legislative options to protect consumers”. Professor Rimmer said Australia’s current regime for regulating greenwashing was fragmented and fractured. “It is split across consumer law, competition policy, corporations law, advertising standards, and intellectual property,” he said. “Australia needs a regulatory body, with specialist knowledge, to address misleading and deceptive environmental claims. There should be proper enforcement against the scourge of greenwashing in Australia.”
[Matthew Sag] ... Although we are still a long way from the science fiction version of artificial general intelligence that thinks, feels, and refuses to “open the pod bay doors”, recent advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence (“AI”) have captured the public’s imagination and lawmakers’ interest. We now have large language models (“LLMs”) that can pass the bar exam, carry on a conversation on almost any topic, create new music, and new visual art. The principal copyright questions that you as law makers must consider relate to (1) the copyrightability of artifacts made with generative AI; and (2) the legality of using copyrighted works to train machine learning models, without express consent.
[Public Citizen Press Release] Colombia will soon decide whether to authorize price-cutting generic competition with a critical patented AIDS drug, directly challenging pharmaceutical industry power under a new health ministry resolution in one of the hemisphere's most influential states. In anticipation of the decision, https://www.citizen.org/article/letter-to-colombias-minister-of-health-supporting-colombias-right-to-issue-a-compulsory-license-for-hiv-treatment-dolutegravir/ Colombian Minister of Health Guillermo Alfonso Jaramillo to support expanding access to dolutegravir, calling the move a "stand for health justice."
[Sanya Samtani] Last week, in the latest instalment of South Africa’s copyright reform saga, the Select Committee on Trade and Industry, Economic Development, Small Business, Tourism, Employment and Labour at the National Council of Provinces (one of the houses of Parliament in South Africa), held a clause-by-clause vote on proposed amendments to the Copyright Amendment Bill [B13D-2017] (CAB) and Performers Protection Amendment Bill [B24-2016]. I summarise some of the salient outcomes of this vote below with regard to the CAB.
[Desmond Oriakhogba] In October 2021, I wrote about the Nigerian copyright law reform process... The reform process is now complete with the recent assent to the Bill, as the Copyright Act 2022, by the Nigerian President. The Act introduces a new vista in Nigerian copyright law as it repeals the Copyright Act 2004. How can libraries in Nigeria benefit from the Copyright Act 2022?
[Jonathan Band] Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has assented to a new copyright act that updates the country’s exceptions and limitations for the digital environment. Most significantly, the act replaces a closed fair dealing provision based on the English copyright law with an open provision modeled on the U.S. Copyright Act’s fair use right. The adoption of an open fair dealing provision by Africa’s largest producer of copyrighted material should put to rest arguments elsewhere on the continent that open exceptions are inimical to copyright industries.
[Chebet Koros, Joshua Kitili, Cynthia Nzuki and Natasha Karanja] ...The Strathmore University Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law carried out a study to determine the relationship between Kenya’s technology and copyright legal framework that affect the use of TDM research. It had four specific targets: to determine if Kenya’s technology policy promotes technology, learning, and research; to understand the prospects and plans for enabling a legal environment for research and development of technology; to assess the role of copyright law in enabling TDM research, and finally to provide recommendations for national, regional, and international copyright policies that enable TDM research. This policy brief is a summary of that study with specific policy recommendations resulting from the study.
[Andrea Zappalaglio] This contribution investigates the functioning of the EU sui generis Geographical Indication (GI) system, with a specific focus on the regime for the protection of agricultural products and foodstuffs within the scope of EU Regulation 1151/2012. In particular, based on the results of the recent “Study on the Functioning of the EU Geographical Indications System” of the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition (February 2022), this paper: (1) clarifies the nature of EU GIs as it emerges from an empirical assessment of the specifications of all the products that appear on the EU register; (2) comparatively analyses the national practices of the EU Member States and explores the discrepancies that exist among them to date; (3) provides an in-depth assessment of the structures of the specifications of EU GIs, highlighting the domestic specificities; (4) investigates the contents and functions of the amendments to the specifications of the registered products. It concludes by emphasizing the importance of the present research in light of the current EU international agenda, with a specific focus on the bilateral agreements recently or currently negotiated.
[Vitor Ido] A conference “A Right to Research in Africa? A Week of Debates on Copyright and Access to Knowledge” took place on 23-27 January 2023 at the University of Pretoria and the University of Cape Town, South Africa. The gathering of scholars, artists, librarians, researchers and government officials had the objective to discuss the evolution of copyright law and the role of limitations and exceptions (L&Es) to advance research in Africa. The week of debates was co-organized by the South Centre, ReCreate South Africa, Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property (PIJIP) – American University Washington College of Law, Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL), the University of Pretoria – Future Africa, the University of Cape Town – IP Unit, the Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law (CIPIT) – Strathmore University, Wikimedia Foundation and Masakhane.