Category Trade Agreements

How Closed Trade Deals Ratchet Up the Copyright Term Worldwide

[Jeremy Malcolm] ... differences in copyright term make things more complicated for copyright holders, there are constant efforts by some copyright holders to try to homogenize the duration of copyright so that they can more easily enforce their copyrights worldwide—and of course, they would like them to be harmonized at the life-plus-70 year term, so that they can extract another 20 years of monopoly rents, over and above the Berne Convention's standard life-plus-50 year term. Trade agreements are one way that they are trying to achieve this.

Mercosur-EU Free Trade Agreement: A Bad Deal for the Public Domain

[Jorge Gemetto, Communia Association, Link, (CC-0)] ... A few weeks ago, Greenpeace Netherlands leaked a new draft of the Mercosur-EU FTA, apparently from July 2017, which includes the IP chapter. This new draft of the IP chapter shows the huge number of areas where there is a lack of agreement between Mercosur and the European Union. In the section devoted to copyright, the consolidated text (meaning those areas agreed upon by both parties) is only a small fraction. The rest consists of proposals and counterproposals from both parties. It is easy to see that, while the interest of the European Union is to increase the terms and scope of IP protection, as well as to impose new penalties on infringement, Mercosur countries seek to avoid higher IP standards, incorporate mandatory limitations and exceptions to copyright, and favor the identification and protection of the public domain.

Letter From 24 Civil Society Groups to EU and Mercusor Trade Negotiators, re: IP and Access to Medicines

[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”] [et_pb_row admin_label=”row”] [et_pb_column type=”4_4″] [et_pb_text admin_label=”Text”] Dear Ms. Gallina, Dear Mr. Pinto: We, the undersigning organisations, active in the fields of public health and access to medicines, mostly based in the European Union or Mercosur, draw your attention…

U.S., Canadian & Mexican Law Professors, Academics and Policy Experts: NAFTA Must Include Fair Use, Safe Harbors

Update – November 20: The statement of principles for copyright balance in trade agreements is now available in both English and French WASHINGTON – Today, over seventy international copyright law experts called for NAFTA and other trade negotiators to support a set…

TPP Texts Show Suspended IP Provisions

[William New, IP Watch, Link (CC-BY-SA)] Trade ministers negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement have released the list of provisions they have suspended, including a range of articles related to intellectual property rights, such as patentable subject matter, test data protection, biologics,…