Advocating for a world where intellectual
property law serves the public interest.

New ViiV license with the Medicines Patent Pool expands access but eviscerates transparency

[Brook Baker] The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) has announced a new licensing agreement for dolutegravir (DTG) with ViiV for four countries (Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Malaysia) excluded from earlier licensing agreements. Reports about this new announcement, which resulted from negotiations that directly involved the affected countries’ governments (unlike many past MPP licenses), have missed significant shortcomings in the deal.

A Path to Progress at WIPO: Tackling Confusion, Complexity, and a Can’t-Do Attitude

[IFLA] The 40th meeting of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights was far from what was expected when IFLA and others last left Geneva in October 2019, at the end of the 39th meeting. The dates had changed (the meeting had been planned for July), the WIPO Director General had changed (Daren Tang took over on 1 October),

Copyright limits and learning: lessons from the covid-19 quarantine

When the Covid-19 pandemic swept across the world in early 2020, most educational institutions from Dublin to Delhi were forced to close their classroom doors and take their teaching online. Textbooks were abandoned in student lockers and library books left untouched on shelves. Teachers had to pivot to remote delivery methods to ensure that students could successfully complete the ill-fated

Patent-Related Actions Taken in WTO Members in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

[Xiaoping We and Bassam Peter Khazin] Abstract: ... This working paper provides an overview of the patent landscape of medical treatments and technologies related to COVID-19, and of the patent status of two investigational medical treatments: remdesivir and lopinavir/ritonavir. It then presents various patent-related actions taken by legislators, policymakers, industry sectors, and civil society organizations in WTO Members since the

A Doha Declaration for COVID-19? Professor Calls for Positive Agenda at WIPO SCCR

[PIJIP] Covid-19 has forced schools and universities around the world to abruptly move online, necessitating the reproduction and sharing of works in the digital environment. Yet many nations' copyright exceptions for education fail to protect user rights online. In his statement before the 40th World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), Professor Sean Flynn

15 Years and a Pandemic Later: Are We THere Yet?

[Teresa Nobre] In our capacity of permanent observers of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), we are attending the 40th session of the Committee, which is taking place in a hybrid format of in-person and online participation from 16 to 20 November 2020. The following is the statement made on behalf of Communia on limitations and