Waiver of intellectual property rights due to COVID-19
In March, 2021, more than 250 organizations from all around the world, including the IPI, called on all WTO members to waive certain provisions of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), including copyright provisions, to more effectively prevent, contain and treat COVID-19. Calls for the suspension of certain TRIPS provisions due to COVID-19 have been successful. The US was the first to take an important step. When will the EU act properly?
The Statement on Copyright and Proposal of a Waiver from Certain Provisions of the Trade- Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement for the Prevention, Containment and Treatment of COVID-19 calls for the waiver of certain provisions of TRIPS, to ensure that governments can issue orders, accept interpretations of their legislation, and amend and otherwise overcome copyright barriers to access the knowledge needed to tackle a pandemic.
The Statement called for urgent action to clarify that all copyright and related rights agreements must be interpreted and implemented in a way that respects human rights during a pandemic and other emergencies, and that governments should be allowed to protect and promote vital public interests during health or other emergencies and that they should be able to appropriately extend appropriate restrictions and exemptions to the digital environment during health or other emergencies.
The US has already responded positively. Katherine Tai, a representative for the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office, made a statement, announcing the Biden-Harris administration’s support for the waiver of intellectual property protection for COVID-19 vaccines. This is a great step in the right direction, towards greater solidarity in removing barriers to the prevention, restriction and treatment of COVID-19. At this point, however, it remains unclear whether the US government also had in mind the waiver of copyright protection, or simply the waiver of the protection of industrial property rights. The European Union should also follow this important step.
On 23rd of November, 2021, the European Commission has published two reports in the field of copyright, as required by Directives 2014/26/EU (CRM Directive) and 2019/790 (DSM Directive). They are supported by two studies: Study on emerging issues on collective licensing management in the digital environment, and Study on selected issues relating to the application of the CRM Directive.
A new book “Law and Artificial Intelligence: Issues of Ethics, Human Rights and Social Harm” was published (Institute of Criminology at the Faculty of law in Ljubljana, 2021), the editors of which are prof. dr. Aleš Završnik and dr. Katja Simončič. The author of one of the articles is also dr. Maja Bogataj Jančič, LL.M., LL.M., who wrote an article on the topic of whether artificial intelligence can be an author of a copyright work.
Jožef Štefan Institute is organising GO-DIP workshop series, first of them coming on November 19th, 2021 is revolving around software IP and data agreements. The GO-DIP project aims to increase the competencies of knowledge generators and intermediaries. At 15.10 dr. Maja Bogataj Jančič, LL.M., LL.M. will be lecturing in the Workshop: Development of a checklist for model digital IP agreements. Welcome!
2nd GPAI Summit will occur from 11-12 November, 2021 in Paris, France. Leading international AI experts from civil society, academia, industry and governments, including ministerial-level delegates from GPAI’s Membership, will come together for GPAI’s annual event. This public-facing event will include reporting on the ten Working Groups’ study topics, including the reporting of Data Governance Working Group (DG WG). Public conferences will be broadcasted live on GPAI’s Youtube channel. Welcome!