Law Commons^™

Public Interest Analysis Of The Us Tpp Proposal For An Ip Chapter, Sean Flynn, Margot E. Kaminski, Brook K. Baker, Jimmy H. Koo

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

This briefing paper provides preliminary analysis of two leaked U.S. proposals for an intellectual property chapter in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement. The U.S. proposal, if adopted, would create the highest intellectual property protection and enforcement standards in any free trade agreement to date. Its provisions are primarily based on, and frequently go beyond, the maximalist and controversial standards of the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (KORUS), the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) and US law, while negating the development-oriented flexibilities required by the 2007 New Trade Deal for developing countries and included in the US-Peru Free Trade Agreement. If adopted, …

Why Full Open Access Matters, Michael Carroll

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This Perspective argues that when authors or funders pay the full cost of publishing a scientific or scholarly journal article in an open access journal, the terms of reuse should require only attribution to some combination of the author(s), the original publisher, and the funder. Publications that charge authors and their financial backers the full cost of publication and then add other reuse restrictions are not fully open access publications.

Why Full Open Access Matters, Michael W. Carroll

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

This Perspective argues that when authors or funders pay the full cost of publishing a scientific or scholarly journal article in an open access journal, the terms of reuse should require only attribution to some combination of the author(s), the original publisher, and the funder. Publications that charge authors and their financial backers the full cost of publication and then add other reuse restrictions are not fully open access publications.

Acta And Access To Medicines, Sean Flynn, Bijan Madhani

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

The Greens/EFA Internet Core Group in the European Parliament, and a collection of its individual members, commissioned this analysis of potential impacts of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) on access to medicines in developing countries.” On the whole, ACTA negotiators created an agreement that shifts international “hard law” rules and “soft law” encouragements toward making enforcement of intellectual property rights in courts, at borders, by the government and by private parties easier, less costly, and more “deterrent” in the level of penalties. In doing so, it increases the risks and consequences of wrongful searches, seizures, lawsuits and other enforcement actions …

Book Review: Gene Patents And Collaborative Licensing Models: Patent Pools, Clearinghouses, Open Source Models And Liability Regimes (Ed. Geertrui Van Overwalle), Jonas Anderson

Book Reviews

A review of Gene Patents and Collaborative Licensing Models: Patent Pools, Clearinghouses, Open Source Models and Liability Regimes.

Acta's Constitutional Problem: The Treaty That Is Not A Treaty (Or An Executive Agreement), Sean Flynn

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

The planned entry of the U.S. into the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) poses a unique Constitutional problem. The problem is that the President lacks constitutional authority to bind the U.S. to the agreement without congressional consent; but that lack of authority may not prevent the U.S. from being bound to the agreement under international law. If the administration succeeds in its plan, ACTA may be a binding international treaty (under international law) that is not a treaty (under U.S. Constitutional law).

Transparency Soup: The Acta Negotiating Process And "Black Box" Lawmaking, David S. Levine

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

The negotiations of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) have been marred by a level of attempted secrecy heretofore unseen in international intellectual property lawmaking. Simultaneously, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) has been used in several significant national contexts to prevent the disclosure of data and information in ways that call into question its efficacy as an effective regulation of governmental knowledge. This paper seeks to tie together these two recent developments in order to (a) prevent future international intellectual property law negotiations from being unduly secret and (b) encourage Congress to consider reforming FOIA in light of current public …

Secret Inventions, Jonas Anderson

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Patent law - and innovation policy more generally - has traditionally been conceptualized as antithetical to secrecy. Not only does the patent system require inventors to publicly disclose their inventions in order to receive a patent, but various patent doctrines are designed to encourage inventors to forego trade secrecy. This Article offers a critique of the law’s preference for patents. In particular, this Article examines whether and under what circumstances the law should prefer patents over secrets, and vice versa.

As an initial step towards a theoretically-supported system of inventor incentives, this Article constructs a framework that attempts to balance …

Acta's Constitutional Problems: The Treaty Is Not A Treaty, Sean Flynn

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

On the eve of the United States’ entry into the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (“ACTA”), there is considerable confusion as to just what legal effect the agreement will have. In written answers to Senator Ron Wyden, the United States Trade Representative (“USTR”) went to lengths to describe ACTA as non-binding, asserting that “ACTA does not constrain Congress’ authority to change U.S. law,” and that it would operate only as an “Executive Agreement” that “can be implemented without new legislation.” But European negotiators have described the agreement to their legislature in very different terms, asserting that ACTA is “a binding international agreement …

Acta’S Constitutional Problem: The Treaty Is Not A Treaty, Sean Flynn

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

The planned entry of the U.S. into the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) poses a unique Constitutional problem. The problem is that the President lacks constitutional authority to bind the U.S. to the agreement without congressional consent; but that lack of authority may not prevent the U.S. from being bound to the agreement under international law. If the administration succeeds in its plan, ACTA may be a binding international treaty (under international law) that is not a treaty (under U.S. Constitutional law).

An Overview And The Evolution Of The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta), Margot E. Kaminski

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), a plurilateral intellectual property agreement developed outside of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO), represents an attempt to introduce maximalist intellectual property standards in the international sphere, outside of existing institutional checks and balances. ACTA is primarily a copyright treaty, masquerading as a treaty that addresses dangerous medicines and defective imports. The latest ACTA draft, which is the final text available to the public before the signed text is released, contains significant shifts away from earlier draft language towards more moderate language, although it poses the same institutional problems …