Day December 9, 2020

Webinar – Guaranteeing Access to Medicines: Reforming Trade and Investment Treaties in the COVID-19 Era

[December 11, 2020 | 7am EST] Eight months into COVID-19, what is the status of the international investment regime and access to essential medicines? The GDP Center’s Working Group on Trade and Access to Medicines will host a panel discussion on trade, investment regime, and access to essential medicines. The event is co-sponsored with the South Centre, an intergovernmental organization of developing nations based in Switzerland.

Pledging Intellectual Property for COVID-19

[Jorge L. Contreras, Michael B. Eisen, Ariel Ganz, Mark A. Lemley, Jenny Molloy, Diane Peters, and Frank Tietze] Abstract: COVID-19 differs from other recent public health crises with respect to its sudden onset, its rapid spread, the lack of any known vaccine or cure and resulting shortages of critical medical equipment. The convergence of these factors has prompted both governments and IPR holders around the world to seek ways to increase the availability of IPR necessary to combat the pandemic. Governmental compulsory licensing, IPR pools and voluntary IPR pledges have all been used in the past, though in situations that differ in important respects from the COVID-19 pandemic. Each is designed to result, to a greater or lesser degree, in a publicly-accessible “commons” of rights and technologies that are broadly available for use to support an important public health goals. Here, we compare and contrast these differing approaches to IPR commons formation and assess their suitability to address the COVID-19 crisis.

Copyright and COVID-19: Has WIPO learned nothing from the pandemic?

[Teresa Nobre] In November, Communia participated in the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) 40th session of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), the most important forum at the global level for copyright rulemaking... Communia and other civil society observers were expecting the Committee to consider the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on these public interest activities, and take appropriate action. However, WIPO member states had previously decided that, due to the format of the meeting, they would not engage in negotiations on any of the items on their agenda. Therefore, despite references to the problems caused by the pandemic in several Delegations’ statements, none put forward any proposal to deal with these issues. Click here for more.

Researchers, librarians, filmmakers and teachers are waiting for the copyright reforms the government has promised

[Kylie Pappalardo] In August, the communications minister announced a series of changes to copyright laws to “better support the needs of Australians and public institutions to access material in an increasingly digital environment”. These changes are long overdue. But the year is ending, and we are yet to see the legislation. The most important change is to ensure access to so-called orphan works.