Day July 16, 2018

Permitted Uses in Copyright Law – Is There Need for an International Instrument?

[Reto Hilty and Valentina Moscon] Abstract: As a follow-up project to the “Declaration on a Balanced Interpretation of the Three-Step Test” (2008), the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition has coordinated an international group of world-renowned copyright experts to produce a legal instrument (possibly in the form of an international agreement) containing a nucleus of indispensable copyright-permitted uses that States should be obliged to implement in their legislations. With the purpose of counterbalancing the current international trend in copyright law, characterised by its “minimal protection approach”, concrete provisions and extended explanatory notes are provided to foster a “minimal limitation approach”.

Global Innovation Index 2018: China Breaks Into Top 20, US Drops Out Of Top 5

[David Branigan, IP-Watch]  The 11th edition of the Global Innovation Index 2018 (GII), co-published by Cornell University, INSEAD, and the World Intellectual Property Organization, was released yesterday at a launch event in New York. This year’s report showed Switzerland still at the top overall, China continuing to rise, the United States slipping, and explored how countries can vary on inputs and outputs of innovation. “The GII ranks 126 economies based on 80 indicators, ranging from intellectual property filing rates to mobile-application creation, education spending and scientific and technical publications,” according to a WIPO press release.

People Living with Hepatitis C and HIV Challenge Evergreening Patents on Lifesaving Hepatitis C Drugs in India

[Delhi Network of Positive People] 10 July 2018: Delhi Network of Positive People (DNP+) has filed today two patent oppositions before the Indian patent office, challenging additional patent claims by US pharmaceutical corporation-Gilead Sciences for the hepatitis C medicines sofosbuvir and velpatasvir. These oppositions challenge Gilead’s patent applications for the tablet formulation of the fixed-dose combination of sofosbuvir/velpatasvir and the polymorph form of velpatasvir.