Day June 11, 2018

104 Members of Parliament Agree: It’s Time to Dump the #LinkTax

In an incredible show of political support for a more reasonable copyright law, today 104 members of the European Parliament sent a letter to Rapporteur Voss asking him to delete the harmful press publishers right—Article 11. The signatories include MEPs from across the political spectrum. Signatories of the letter state that "... we believe that the introduction of a new European neighbouring right will have a nocent and injurious effect on citizens’ access to quality news and information."

Sustainability of Article Publishing Charge to Further Open Access

[Prathima Appaji, Creative Commons USA] In the field of academic publishing, there are a variety of models. Many journals use ‘reader-pay’ model wherein readers pay a fixed price to access to read. Increasingly, open access journals and hybrid journals are using an ‘author-pay’ model where the author pays a fixed Article Publishing Charge (APC) and the article is made accessible to all readers for free... in many cases, APCs have grown from a small fee to a major one. Click here for more.

EU Files WTO Case Against China Over Intellectual Property Rights Protection

[William New, IP Watch] The European Union has filed a World Trade Organization dispute settlement complaint against China for unfair treatment of foreign intellectual property rights holders. The case follows a similar filing by the United States against China. The EU says in its filing, available here, that a series of measures employed by China violate the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).

Patent Policy and American Innovation after eBay: An Empirical Examination

[Filippo Mezzanotti and Timothy Simcoe] Abstract: The 2006 Supreme Court ruling in eBay vs. MercExchange marked a sea change in U.S. patent policy. The eBay decision removed the presumption of injunctive relief. Subsequent legal and policy changes reduced the costs of challenging patent validity and narrowed the scope of patentable subject matter. Proponents of these changes argue that they have made the U.S. patent system more equitable, particularly for sectors such as information technology, where patent ownership is fragmented and innovation highly cumulative. Opponents suggest the same reforms have weakened intellectual property rights and curtailed innovation. After reviewing the legal background and relevant economic theory, we examine patenting, R&D spending, venture capital investment and productivity growth in the wake of the eBay decision. Overall, we find no evidence that changes in patent policy have harmed the American innovation system.