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

Authors Alliance Supports Consideration of Termination of Transfer Provisions in South Africa

[Authors Alliance] The Parliament of the Republic of South Africa is currently considering the Copyright Amendment Bill, an update of the country’s 1978 copyright legislation. The proposed bill includes a provision for termination of transfers. Today, we submitted a letter to South Africa’s Members of Parliament in support of a carefully drafted termination provision that would allow authors to regain
Read more

Statement on Limitations and Exceptions for WIPO Broadcast Treaty

Thank you chair. I want to speak quickly to the issue of limitations and exceptions for the Broadcast treaty should one proceed. We should not be using a 20 year old model that ignores the many advancements in this area. With all due respect, both the chair’s text and the proposal by Argentina and Brazil at the last round are
Read more

Joint NGO Letter on the Proposed WIPO Treaty on Broadcasting

[Letter signed by 14 NGOs] We are concerned that negotiations on a broadcasting treaty have not clarified a number of important issues, nor addressed core concerns from civil society and copyright holders. At the outset, we are supportive of measures to address the legitimate concerns of broadcasters as regards piracy of broadcast signals. We are looking forward to seeing appropriate
Read more

The Medicines Patent Pool Presents New Five-Year Strategy For Improving Access To Priority Treatments In Developing Countries

[MPP Press release], Geneva, 24 May 2018 — The Medicines Patent Pool Foundation (MPP) released its five-year strategic plan during a side event at the 71st World Health Assembly this evening. ... the plan supports the expansion of the MPP model to other patented medicines with high medical value, starting with small molecules on the World Health Organization Model List
Read more

South African Cabinet Approves New Intellectual Property Policy

[Fix the Patent Laws Coalition, Link] The Fix the Patent Laws Coalition (FTPL) welcomes the news today that the Cabinet of the Government of South Africa has approved the new Intellectual Property (IP) Policy. After nine years of policy development, two different draft policies and various rounds of public consultation, we now finally have an agreed-upon government policy that can
Read more

Cautionary Tales About Collective Rights Organizations, Part 2

[Jonathan Band and Brandon Butler] In 2013, we published Cautionary Tales About Collective Rights Organizations [21 Michigan State Int’l L. Rev. 687 (2013)]. We acknowledged that properly regulated collective rights organizations (“CROs”) in some circumstances enhanced efficiency and advanced the interests of rights holders and users. At the same time, we observed that CROs had a long history of corruption,
Read more

Posts by Category