Category Multilateral Fora

WTO Ministerial Decision: ‘TRIPped’ the Waiver

[Shirin Syed] The 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) concluded on Friday, June 17, 2022, with a “Ministerial Decision on the TRIPS Agreement”, to facilitate exportation of Covid-19 vaccines under the compulsory licence to enhance availability and accessibility for poor countries... The TRIPS Decision no longer remains an IP waiver as proposed originally by India and South Africa and 65 co-sponsors. It lacks the comprehensive measures as in the original proposal to address the concern of production and supply of Covid-19 vaccines to meet global demand, especially from lower-income countries who are deprived of their fair share of vaccines in the current pandemic.

TRIPS WAIVER: AN INSUFFICIENT MULTILATERAL RESPONSE. TRIPS-CONSISTENT NATIONAL ACTIONS ARE CALLED FOR

[South Centre] ...The process leading to the Decision confirms the need to fully use the TRIPS flexibilities to address emergency and other situations where public health and other public interests are at stake, and to review the current international IP regime (including article 31bis of the TRIPS Agreement) to accelerate the sharing of technology, including know-how.

Doha Twenty Years On – Has The Promise Been Betrayed?

[Yousuf Vawda and Bonginkosi Shozi] The Doha Declaration’s twentieth anniversary in November 2021 has taken place in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The experience of the past two years has demonstrated that the very factors that necessitated the Declaration—the problems of inequitable access to medicines and other health technologies for the world’s poor—continue to plague us.

Manufacturing for Export: A TRIPS-Consistent Pro-Competitive Exception

[Carlos M. Correa and Juan I. Correa] The paper discusses the flexibilization of the sui generis system of supplementary protection certificates (SPCs) under European law recently introduced to allow for the manufacturing, stockpiling and export of covered products. Against this background, it examines the viability under the Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (the TRIPS Agreement) of an exception allowing for the manufacture and export of patent-protected products. It concludes that such an exception would promote competition and enhance access to medicines (including biologicals) for the general public while being consistent with Article 30 of the TRIPS Agreement if read in accordance with the principles of interpretation of customary international law.

SOBRE EL SCCR 42 DE LA OMPI Y LA ALIANZA DE LA SOCIEDAD CIVIL LATINOAMERICANA PARA EL ACCESO JUSTO AL CONOCIMIENTO

[Fundación Karisma] Entre el 9 y el 13 de mayo de 2022 tuvo lugar la cuadragésima segunda sesión del Comité Permanente de Derecho de Autor y Derechos Conexos de la Organización Mundial de la Propiedad Intelectual (SCCR 42 de la OMPI). Para esta ocasión, seis organizaciones de la sociedad civil latinoamericana coordinamos acciones conformando la Alianza de la Sociedad Civil Latinoamericana para el Acceso Justo al Conocimiento. Las organizaciones con estatus de observadoras, Fundación Karisma de Colombia y Fundación Vía Libre de Argentina, en conjunto con las organizaciones que conformamos la Alianza, a saber: Datysoc de Uruguay, Derechos Digitales de Chile, Hiperderecho de Perú, IBDAutoral e InternetLab de Brasil, asistimos al SCCR 42 para presentar nuestro posicionamiento en relación con los puntos de la agenda, especialmente aquellos relacionados con la agenda de limitaciones y excepciones al derecho de autor.

The WIPO Files II: Is International Lawmaking on Copyright Still Possible?

[Teresa Nobre] The 42nd session of the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) took place from 9 to 13 May 2022 in Geneva. This was the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic started that most of the delegates were reunited in person. In 2020 and 2021, the Committee held hybrid format sessions of online and in-person participation, with most of the delegations attending remotely. The number of meetings were reduced from two regular sessions to one per year as a result and the Committee agreed not to engage in text-based negotiations during those sessions. The return to Geneva could have led one to believe that there might be a renewed interest in moving the Committee’s agenda forward. But as the days passed by, without a consensus on any agenda item, this hope faded away. Only when the session was coming to an end did the delegates finally agree on a few next steps for the two main agenda items of the Committee, in both cases falling short of the initial expectations.

Libraries, Research Get a Boost at WIPO

[Terea Hackett] The 42nd session of WIPO's Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), the global forum that sets international copyright law and policy, took place in Geneva from 9 - 13 May 2022 - the first full meeting since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. EIFL was there to promote strong rights for libraries in support of access to knowledge for education, research and development. I was representing EIFL with Dick Kawooya, University of South Carolina, USA; Anthony Kakooza, Makerere University, Uganda; Desmond Oriakhogba, University of Venda, South Africa, and Awa Cissé Diouf, Universite Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD), Senegal.

EXCEPTIONS AND LIMITATIONS TO COPYRIGHT IN THE AGENDA AT SCCR 42 WIPO

[Deborah De Angelis] The SCCR42 took place in Geneva from May 9th to 13th, 2022, turning into an in-person meeting after the Covid pandemic, but with the possibility of remote participation as a “phygital” event... The SCCR42 agenda item 7 has been dedicated to limitations and exceptions to copyright, which has formed a core part of the agenda of the SCCR for at least 15 years. One of the goals achieved during the previous discussions is the Marrakesh Treaty in 2013 for the use of copyrighted works by people with blindness or visual impairments.

Strong Support, Discordant Tunes: The African Group’s Proposal on a Work Program on Limitations and Exceptions Moves Forward in WIPO’s Committee on Copyright

[Desmond Oriakhogba and Dick Kawooya] The African Group’s (AG) proposal on a Work Program for Copyright Exceptions and Limitations (L&Es) was item 7 on the Agenda at the 42nd Session of the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (WIPO-SCCR) held from 9 to 13 May 2022. In preparation for the 42nd Session, we noted that the African Group proposal for a Work Program on L&Es “picks up on where the [WIPO-SCCR] left off in 2019, and gives a focus to its future work on important issues of access to copyrighted works for education, research and other public interest purposes”; and, if adopted, the Work Program “will set WIPO on the path of formulating norms that will position the global copyright system to withstand future pandemics”.

WIPO SCCR 42: Statement by CIS on the Limitations and Exceptions Agenda Item

[Anubha Sinha] Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m speaking on behalf of the Centre for Internet and Society, India. The Proposal by the African Group for a Draft work program on Exceptions and Limitations has the potential to address issues faced in the domains of access to information, culture and education, keeping in mind that there have been systemic shifts in the knowledge ecosystem since pandemic, which will endure in the long term as well.

COMMUNIA Statement to the 42nd WIPO SCCR on Limitations and Exceptions for Education and Research

[Teresa Nobre] ...There is absolutely no doubt that the restrictions copyright laws pose on access to knowledge and information condition the right to education and the right to research, and that educational and research exceptions would benefit society as a whole. That is what will determine whether teachers can show a short news report during live-streamed online classes, whether researchers can conduct medical research or track disinformation online.

Intellectual Property Institute Statement on the 42nd WIPO SCCR

[Intellectual Property Institute] The first half of the event focused on the Broadcasting Treaty proposal, which SCCR first discussed more than 15 years ago. The proposal would grant new exclusive rights to broadcasting organisations, but falls short on granting the necessary exceptions and limitations in public interest. NGOs such as Communia and EIFL have harshly criticised the proposal in that regard. In the second half of the event, exceptions and limitations to copyright for educational and research institutions were the focus of the discussion. The African group of delegates prepared and presented a draft programme proposal on the issue. They drew attention to the difficulties, encountered in African educational institutions, due to copyright protection of educational materials. In addition, many African libraries mostly operate in physical form and have poor access to digital materials.