Category Multilateral Fora

The WTO TRIPS Waiver Should Help Build Vaccine Manufacturing Capacity in Africa

[Faizel Ismail] The current global health crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic has re-focused our attention on the inadequacy of the TRIPS agreement and the patent system to address global public health crises. This time, developing countries must ensure that the TRIPS waiver succeeds in creating the impetus for the building of manufacturing capacity in the poorest countries, especially in Africa, for vaccines, pharmaceuticals and other health technologies. This is the only effective way in which African countries can reduce their dependence on imports of essential medicines and build their health security, contributing to the achievement of the sustainable development goals, for the poorest countries.

Call for Proposals: Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest #IPWeek2021

From July 26 to September 10, the call for proposals will be open for the collaborative agenda of #IPWeek2021, Intellectual Property Week, the Public Interest, and COVID-19: learnings, discoveries, and challenges. This new version of Intellectual Property, Public Interest and COVID-19 Week will address the lessons and discoveries that the COVID-19 pandemic left to society, and future challenges in the post-pandemic period, in the relationship framework between intellectual property and the public interest.

Notes from the WIPO Standing Committee on COpyright and Related Rights

[Anubha Sinha] Day 1 - Member states delivered opening statements and deliberated on the progress, substantive provisions, and method of work on the draft broadcasting treaty text. This blog post summarises positions and contentions that supported: 1) transparency in SCCR work 2) limitations and exceptions 3) addressing the object of protection and overbroad scope of rights in the draft treaty text.

WIPO Agrees to Hold Information Session on COVID

[Electronic Information for Libraries] WIPO’s Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR/41) has just held its first - and only - meeting in 2021. EIFL was represented by Teresa Hackett, EIFL Copyright and Libraries Programme Manager, Dick Kawooya, University of South Carolina, and EIFL Copyright Coordinator in Senegal, Awa Cissé, Universite Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD), Dakar...EIFL called for action on two agenda items: fair access to broadcast content in the proposed treaty for the protection of broadcast organizations, and for work to begin on exceptions for preservation and other priority areas. We also urged extreme caution on starting any work on the controversial issue of public lending right. In the main concrete outcome of the session, the Committee decided to hold an information session on the impact of the COVID pandemic on the cultural, creative and educational ecosystem during SCCR/42, which is due to take place in 2022.

Save the Date – Global Congress #IPWeek2021 – October 25-29

[Fundación Karisma] The organizers of the Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest will host an #IPWeek October 25-29, 2021. A call-for-proposals will be open soon, and in this edition, we will include a call for creative pieces about the intellectual property / public interest relationship in a post-pandemic world.

Interpreting the Flexibilities Under the TRIPS Agreement

[Carlos M. Correa] While the TRIPS Agreement provides for minimum standards of protection of intellectual property, it leaves a certain degree of policy space for WTO members, whether developed or developing countries, to implement the Agreement’s provisions in different manners, to legislate in areas not subject to the minimum standards under the Agreement, and to develop legal interpretations of such provisions to determine the scope and content of the applicable obligations. This paper focuses on some aspects of how panels and the Appellate Body of the WTO have interpreted said provisions.

ANALYSIS OF WIPO SCCR 41 AGENDA: Day 2, Limitations and Exceptions

[Sean Flynn] This note provides analysis of the Limitations and Exceptions agenda item of the WIPO SCCR 41 Agenda, currently slated to be discussed on June 29-30. The Agenda calls for Members, IGOs and NGOs “to make general comments, with a focus on the Report on Regional Seminars and International Conference (SCCR/40/2), especially the sections on The Way Forward and Take-Away Considerations (pages 63-72).” It also invites “inputs on possible next steps, including the possibility of holding a number of regional consultations before the next session to further develop the understanding of the situation of the cultural and educational and research institutions at the local level, especially in light of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on them.” This note analyzes these two issues separately, and concludes with suggestions of elements that be included in a work plan for SCCR going forward.

Analysis of WIPO SCCR 41 Agenda: Day 2, Limitations and Exceptions

[Sean Flynn] This note provides analysis of the Limitations and Exceptions agenda item of the WIPO SCCR 41 Agenda, currently slated to be discussed on June 29-30. The Agenda calls for Members, IGOs and NGOs “to make general comments, with a focus on the Report on Regional Seminars and International Conference (SCCR/40/2), especially the sections on The Way Forward and Take-Away Considerations (pages 63-72).” It also invites “inputs on possible next steps, including the possibility of holding a number of regional consultations before the next session to further develop the understanding of the situation of the cultural and educational and research institutions at the local level, especially in light of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on them.”

ANALYSIS OF WIPO SCCR 41 AGENDA: DAY 1, BROADCAST TREATY

[Sean Flynn] The WIPO SCCR 41 Agenda asks for comments on possible next steps on the discussion of the Broadcast Treaty proposed Chair’s text. One needed next step is to address the Limitations and Exceptions provision. This provision currently is more limited than the exceptions provided under the Rome Convention and fails to incorporate any of the priorities of the Action Plans on Limitations and Exceptions on preservation, online uses, and cross border uses for libraries, archives, museums, education, research, and people with disabilities. This provision requires significant expansion to ensure that the Broadcast Treaty is balanced and does not harm the public interest.

Letter from 7 Civil Society GroupS to USTR Supporting LDC Request to Extend TRIPS Waiver for As Long As They Remain LDCs

[Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property, Fight for the Future, IP Justice, Library Copyright Alliance, Library Futures, Public Knowledge, and the Software Preservation Network] We urge the United States to support the request of Least Developed Countries (“LDCs”) to the TRIPS Council of the World Trade Organization (IP/C/W/668) for a transition period from implementing the TRIPS Agreement for as long as they remain LDCs. The current transition period is due to expire on July 1, 2021.