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

Promoting Education Rights In South African Copyright Reform

[Eve Gray and Desmond Oriakhogba] The publishing industry is making a mad dash to defeat South Africa’s adoption of a fair use rights in Parliament on Wednesday. Their latest effort includes an alarmist petition being circulated among authors. It is interesting to note that, while one of the most persistent and loud complaints in these protests has been that the

Defending Fair Use In South Africa

[Sean Flynn, Peter Jaszi, and Michael Carroll] On Wednesday the South African National Assembly vote on the Copyright Amendment Bill, which includes a new “fair use” right. The publishing industry is marking the occasion by circulating an alarmist petition that the legislation will have a “direct and detrimental impact on all South African authors.” Learned professors at the University of

Issuance of Compulsory Patent Licenses and Expropriation in Asian BITs and FTA Investment Chapters: A Study of India, China, Malaysia and Thailand

[Prabhash Ranjan] Abstract: Given the increasing interface between intellectual property rights and international investment law, the aim of this chapter is to examine whether issuance of compulsory patent licenses could be challenged as indirect expropriation under investor state dispute settlement of investment treaties/free trade agreements of India, China, Malaysia and Thailand.

New Database Documents the Power of TRIPS Flexibilities

[Ellen 't Hoen] Medicines Law & Policy has published an on-line database of instances of the use of TRIPS flexibilities in public health contexts, titled the TRIPS Flexibilities Database. The publication of the TRIPS Flexibilities Database merits sharing a bit of its history because it has been a work in progress for some time. The database includes cases of actual

U.S. Canada and Mexico Sign Re-Negotiated NAFTA, Critics Still Seek to Alter Problematic IP Provisions

...According to Inside U.S. Trade (paywalled) President Trump told reporters “I don't expect to have very much of a problem” with Congressional implementation of the deal. However, some Democrats in Congress and some civil society groups oppose key provisions and plan to block ratification unless certain provisions are changed. Among the issues are intellectual property concerns.

Canadian Copyright Reform– Maintaining Copyright’s Legitimacy and Credibility for the 21st Century

[Pascale Chapdelaine] Professors Pascale Chapdelaine and Myra Tawfik, and nine other Canadian intellectual property scholars [1] recently co-signed a brief submitted to the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology in the context of the Statutory Review of the Copyright Act. [2] Animated by guiding principles of the need to maintain a balanced, distinctly Canadian copyright system, and to steer