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Coded Social Control: China’S Normalization Of Biometric Surveillance In The Post Covid-19 Era, Michelle Miao
Coded Social Control: China’S Normalization Of Biometric Surveillance In The Post Covid-19 Era, Michelle Miao
Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts
This article investigates the longevity of health QR codes, a digital instrument of pandemic surveillance, in post-COVID China. From 2020 to 2022, China widely used this tri-color tool to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. A commonly held assumption is that health QR codes have become obsolete in post-pandemic China. This study challenges such an assumption. It reveals their persistence and integration - through mobile apps and online platforms - beyond the COVID-19 public health emergency. A prolonged, expanded and normalized use of tools which were originally intended for contact tracing and pandemic surveillance raises critical legal and ethical concerns. Moreover, their …
Trademarks And Censorship In The Time Of Covid-19, Xuan-Thao Nguyen
Trademarks And Censorship In The Time Of Covid-19, Xuan-Thao Nguyen
Articles
During the devastating year of 2020, China quickly conquered the novel coronavirus and roared back economically while the United States faced staggering deaths and economic losses. But underneath the divergent experience of the two countries is an untold story of trademark and censorship in the time of COVID-19. This Article observes that while the United States Supreme Court has lifted the ban on trademark registrations for unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination, opening the door for offensive COVID-19 trademark applications, China has transformed trademark law into the law for censorship as Chinese authorities press forward to achieve twin victories over the coronavirus and …
Patents And The Pandemic: Intellectual Property, Social Contracts, And Access To Vaccines, Peter Lee
Patents And The Pandemic: Intellectual Property, Social Contracts, And Access To Vaccines, Peter Lee
Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts
Through enormous public support and private initiative, biopharmaceutical firms developed safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines in record time. These remarkable vaccines represent humanity’s best chance to end the devastating pandemic. However, difficult questions about ownership and access have arisen alongside the development and deployment of these vaccines. Biopharmaceutical companies have patented many of the technologies underlying these vaccines, thus seeming to pit intellectual property rights against the objective of wide and rapid dissemination of these critical resources. While prevailing debates have been framed in the language of intellectual property, this Article suggests that contract principles can help break the impasse …