Although the 2001 Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health confirmed the right of countries to use measures to ensure access to affordable medicines, only few countries in the developing world have done so. One factor for this scant use of the so-called TRIPS flexibilities has been the lack of accurate information on the patent status of the relevant medicines in developing countries. Clearly, there is a need for a systematic and pragmatic approach to speedily obtain data on the patent status of essential medicines, so that governments and procurement agencies can make informed decisions on available options for production and procurement of generic medicines. A simple and practical method is described in this paper, which enables searches for relevant patent data from publicly available (and free) sources of information. Using a combination of data from patent offices and medicine regulatory authorities that are available on the internet, this methodology provides an inexpensive and pragmatic option to perform a quick search and access patent information on essential [...]
This article submits a short description on the analysis of the concepts embodied in the expressions ‘creative industries’ and ‘creative goods’ and their interactions with the international intellectual property system. Current matters related to the expansion of creative industries and deployment of intellectual property mechanisms for protection of creative goods are to be linked to the constant claims of international community on access to knowledge and cultural goods. The author analyses the debate on ‘creative clusters’, the limits for copyright protection and the balance of proprietary and public interests in the interface of intellectual property and creative process. Those issues must be inherently linked to the development of institutions in the international intellectual property system and shall serve as instigating topic for a research agenda in the near [...]
This article proposes an analysis of the current debate on the interface between freedom of expression, information society and copyright, particularly in respect to the right to access and use of works in digital environment. The author recalls the importance of the constitutional origins of the right of expression and copyright protection, such as the establishment of the intellectual property clause in US Constitution and its counterpart in the Portuguese Constitution of 1976. In addition he traces the constraints to the right to access in digital environment, which are fundamentally based on the enforcement of technological devices for protection of copyright, ‘sui generis rights’ over database content and further developments of the exclusive granted to the right holders. When not properly adjusted to the information society requirements, copyright appears to become a Malthusian instrument, liquidating the potential for dissemination of information and culture in the digital [...]
This article approaches some concrete examples of the economic analysis involving cultural expressions and the ability of intellectual property to respond to economic demands, particularly with regard to the reproductive models in the markets. This analysis appears not to be linked to the substantive levels of the expressive production but rather to the changing role of mediators in such production operating as intermediaries between creators and consumers. New technologies over the time had not only allowed an incredible reduction of costs related to the dissemination of works, but also a qualitative change in the economics of expressive production. From this standpoint, the author recalls the importance of the scholarly debate on the legal and economic perspectives of expressive [...]
Ideas and information are at the heart of the knowledge economy and are increasingly sought after. Information also lies at the centre of intellectual property, even if it has been traditionally left outside the field of exclusivity. In addition to a recent evolution, some basic principles have progressively fallen from view and the subject has experienced a deep mutation. Copyright, originally designed to protect the author and to provide incentives for him to create for the benefit of society, is nowadays more and more used as a mechanism to protect investment, without taking into account the impact on future creativity. This change of paradigm has had a certain influence over the free use of information, which has been called into question in many regards. This contribution seeks first to briefly trace back this evolution, acknowledging the tendency towards a privatisation of information through copyright (understood here in an extended sense, including neighbouring and sui generis rights) and tries to propose [...]
The new UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions of 2005 is supposed to elevate cultural diversity concerns to a level playing field with trade concerns. However, a critical assessment of this soft law instrument shows that it turned out to be essentially an inventory of political claims for rich and democratic welfare states. This means that this agreement will arguably not improve the situation of a majority of the people in the world. This paper shall seek to verify this opinion in the light of a case study on China. This country currently faces the allegation that she perpetrates cultural genocide in Tibet. At the same time, in a recent WTO dispute resolution procedure, China had to respond to the claim that she does not provide sufficient copyright and trade mark protection in violation of her commitments under the TRIPS Agreement. This paper argues that the outcome of this WTO litigation can have a negative impact on cultural [...]
This article aims at examining to which extent the intellectual property system, and particularly the copyright system, is still capable of fostering creativity and spreading different opinions and cultures in the digital era. In fact, the adjustment of the intellectual property system to the digital environment seems to be among fundamental measures for promoting richer and more balanced cultural exchanges. The strengthening of copyright protection implies today the questioning of the system [...]
