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

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission v Pfizer: Evergreening and Market Power as a Blockbuster Drug Goes Off Patent

[Thomas Faunce] Abstract: In Australian Competition and Consumer Commission v Pfizer Australia Pty Ltd [2015] FCA 113 the ACCC alleged that Pfizer’s ‘Project LEAP’ involved a scheme to lock pharmacists into substituting its generic version of the high sales volume anti-cholesterol drug patent-expired Atorvastatin (Lipitor) which took advantage of a substantial degree of market power for a purpose proscribed by

Fair Use in South Africa

[VIDEO] We don't own the images of our own history. Educational resources are owned elsewhere. South Africans cannot sample, adapt, recreate. Innovation that is possible in the US is illegal in South Africa and some people want to keep it that way.

Moderating the Impact of Patent Linkage on Access to Medicines: Lessons from Variations in South Korea, Australia, Canada, and the United States

[Kyung-Bok Son, Ruth Lopert, Deborah Gleeson and Tae-Jin Lee] The inclusion of patent linkage mechanisms in bilateral and plurilateral trade and investment agreements has emerged as a key element in the United States’ TRIPS-Plus intellectual property (IP) negotiating agenda. However, the provisions establishing patent linkage mechanisms in several agreements appear to reflect a degree of ambiguity, potentially enabling some flexibility

Global Copyright Reform Efforts – As Told By Libraries, Museums, and Archives

American University’s Washington College of Law hosted the 5th Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest. A workshop led by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) entitled “Out of the Stacks: A World Tour of Library, Archive, and Museum Copyright Reform” featured a panel, which discussed current and future copyright reform efforts in several countries.

If Copyright Protection Goes Too Far, The Results Can Harm Democracy

[Rehad Desai, Ben Cashdan, Tuse Fokane and Wandile Dlamini] Prof Sadulla Karjiker’s assertion that the government is “intent on diluting intellectual property (IP) rights without regard for the future of the country” is hogwash. Copyright is vital to ensure that creators of art and literature can benefit from their works, but if copyright protection is taken too […]

Warning on Proposed WIPO Broadcast Treaty

[Electronic Information for Libraries] Unless the proposed WIPO treaty on the protection of television broadcast organizations has robust mandatory user rights, access to broadcast material in libraries for uses such as research and study, civic education and community information will be irrevocably harmed, said Teresa Hackett,EIFL Copyright and Libraries Programme Manager, at a recent seminar on the proposed WIPO (World