Intellectual Property Harmonization: TACD Recommendations, a Difficult Convergence

The Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue last week hosted a conference entitled “Patents, Copyrights and Knowledge Governance: The Next Four Years”, gathering IP lawyers and economists from all over the world.

What should the US and EU governments do in terms of international norm-setting on copyright, in terms of patent reform, R&D, and standards is covered by policy recommendations from the speakers.

Philippe Aigrain‘s recommendations for the U.S. and the E.C.:

  • [..] Review patent and copyright legislation and treaties in order to remove provisions that are unbalanced in favor of monopoly rent-seeking on knowledge components: gene sequence, software and software-based information processing patents; protection of TPMs even when circumvention is needed to exert legal use; criminal sanctions for non-commercial alleged infringements of IPR; database protection beyond copyright on original works; constraints on creation of new exceptions and limitations beyond a reasonable interpretation of the three-step test.

Bernt Hugenholtz suggests the E.C.

stop further copyright harmonization efforts and start work on a Community Copyright Regulation.

Heather Joseph says that:

Governments should require that the results of all research conducted using public funds be made freely accessible, online, to the public immediately upon publication.

Konstantinos Karachalios (External Affairs at EPO) invites North-Americans to:

improve operation of USPTO: sufficient resources, training, time and recognition for examiners (keep them longer).

Eddan Katz recommends to:

Invest in digital education initiatives with open educational resources that encourage participatory learning and collaborative development to prepare the incoming workforce for the skills necessary to be innovative and competitive in the knowledge economy.

Fred von Lohmann says:

Reject calls for increased Internet surveillance (e.g., network “filtering”) and punitive enforcement measures (e.g., “three strikes” or “graduated response”) in favor of encouraging collective licensing solutions that are fair to both copyright owners and the public.

Anne-Catherine Lorrain says:

The U.S. and the E.U. should concretely promote the procurement of software and hardware devices that require open standards compliance.

Read more at TACD blog, a difficult convergence to pull of.

Related Posts