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

South Africa Parliament Moves Up Copyright Hearing to Tuesday, August 18

[Sean Flynn] South Africa’s Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry, (National Assembly), announced to stakeholders today that it is moving the scheduled briefing on the Copyright and the Performers’ Protection Amendment Bills to Tuesday August 18 at 9:00-12:00, via a virtual meeting platform. The meeting is scheduled to include briefings by the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition and by
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ON A KNIFE EDGE? SOUTH AFRICA’S NEW COPYRIGHT LAW

[EIFL] The Copyright Amendment Bill [B13B - 2017] had been sitting on the desk of President Cyril Ramaphosa for over a year waiting to be signed into law. In June 2020, when Blind South Africa issued a legal challenge over the delay, the President acted. But instead of signing the Bill that had been approved by the legislature, the President
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COVID and Copyright – The Right to Research

[Teresa Hackett] In Part II of this two-part blog, EIFL Copyright and Libraries Programme Manager Teresa Hackett examines how the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of the right to research through two key issues, text and data mining and digital preservation by cultural heritage institutions, and how WIPO’s proven formula could address the issues. In Part 1 of the
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European Commission Trade Policy Review Includes a Request for Comments on The Digital Transition and Technological Development

Thanks to Ante Wessels for calling to my attention to an EU Trade Policy Review, which aims "to build a consensus around a fresh medium-term direction for EU trade policy, responding to a variety of new global challenges and taking into account the lessons learned from the coronavirus crisis." The review includes a request for comments from the public, with
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WTO TRIPS Council Discusses National IP Measures and TRIPS Flexibilities in the Context of COVID-19

[Nirmalya Syam] A regular session of the TRIPS (Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Council was held virtually on 30 July 2020. This session offered the first opportunity for the World Trade Organization (WTO) Members to discuss intellectual property (IP) related issues in the context of COVID-19. Discussions focused on national measures taken by various countries in relation
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Survey Data from Canada, Mexico and Taiwan added to User Rights Database

In 2017, PIJIP released the User Rights Database, a novel, survey-based dataset, which measures changes to countries’ laws on copyright exceptions over time. Last spring we have added three additional countries to the dataset – Canada, Mexico and Taiwan. This post introduces the new data and discusses how it compares to the data from the original set of countries.
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