Intellectual Property Rights and Access in Crisis

Karen Walsh1, Andrea Wallace1, Mathilde Pavis1, Natalie Olszowy1, James Griffin1, Naomi Hawkins1
1SCuLE Centre, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK

Tóm tắt

Abstract

The importance of access to intellectual property rights (IPR) protected subject-matter in two crucial areas – public health, and educational and cultural engagement – has been extensively demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although they involve separate legal areas, patent and copyright, the common thread linking the two is intellectual property's difficult relationship with access in the public interest. This paper examines the tensions caused by access barriers, the tools used to reduce them and their effectiveness. It is clear that the access barriers magnified by COVID-19 are not restricted to narrow or specific contexts but are widespread. They are created by, and are a feature of, our existing IPR frameworks. Open movements provide limited remedies because they are not designed to, nor can adequately address the wide range of access barriers necessary to promote the public interest. Existing legislative mechanisms designed to remove access barriers similarly fail to effectively remedy access needs. These existing options are premised on the assumption that there is a singular “public” motivated by homogenous “interests”, which fails to reflect the plurality and cross-border reality of the public(s) interest(s) underpinning the welfare goals of IPR. We conclude that a systemic re-evaluation is required and call for positive and equitable legal measures protective of the public(s) interest(s) to be built within IPR frameworks that also address non-IPR barriers. The current pandemic and development of a “new normal” provides a crucial opportunity to comprehensively consider the public(s) interest(s), not just during a global health crisis, but on an ongoing basis.

Từ khóa


Tài liệu tham khảo

American Alliance of Museums (2020) National Survey of COVID-19 Impact on United States Museums, https://www.aam-us.org/2020/07/22/united-states-may-lose-one-third-of-all-museums-new-survey-shows/

Angelopoulos C (2012) The myth of European term harmonisation: 27 public domains for the 27 Member States, available at http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=2145862

Aoki K (1998) Neocolonialism, anticommons property, and biopiracy in the (Not-so-Brave) New World Order. Indiana J Glob Legal Stud 6:11

Aoki R, Schiff A (2008) Promoting access to intellectual property: patent pools, copyright collectives, and clearinghouses. R&D Manag 38(2):189

Aritarathna L, Kariyawasam K (2020) Pharmaceutical patents and access to generic medicines in developing countries. EIPR 42(2):108

Bakels R, Hugenholtz B (2002) The patentability of computer programs. European Parliament, Legal Affairs Series

Barel A, Boman L (2020) Clinical trial cost transparency at the National Institutes of Health: law and policy recommendations. Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy, available at https://www.law.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/Clinical_Trial_Cost_Transparency_at_the_NIH-Law_and_Policy_Recommendations.pdf

Bartow A (2006) Fair use and the fairer sex: gender, feminism, and copyright law. 14 American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law 551

Basheer S, Sanklecha J, Gowda P (2014) Pharmaceutical patent enforcement: a developmental perspective. In: Okediji R, Bagley M (eds) Patent law in a global perspective. Oxford University Press

Bertoni A (2012) Research and “development as freedom”—improving democracy and effectiveness in pharmaceutical innovation for neglected tropical diseases. IIC 43(7):771

Bor F (2006) Exemptions to patent infringement applied to biotechnology research rools. EIPR 28:510

Boseley S (2020) US secures world stock of key Covid-19 drug remdesivir’ The Guardian (London) available at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/30/us-buys-up-world-stock-of-key-covid-19-drug

Boyle J (2008) The public domain: enclosing the commons of the mind. Yale University Press

Brauneis R, Oliar D (2018) An empirical study of the race, ethnicity, gand age of copyright registrants. George Washington Law Rev 86:101

Brown A, Ng C, Adebola T (2020) Intellectual property rights, the public interest and COVID-19 (University of Aberdeen, School of Law Blog) available at https://www.abdn.ac.uk/law/blog/intellectual-property-rights-the-public-interest-and-covid19/

Buccafusco C, Sprigman CJ (2019) Experiments in intellectual property. In: Mennel P, Schwartz D (eds) Research handbook on the economics of intellectual property law. Edward Elgar

Burkett I (2008) Beyond the “information rich and poor”: future understandings of inequality in globalising informational economies. Futures 32(7):679

COVID-19: Human development on course to decline this year for the first time since 1990 (2020) (United Nations Development Programme) https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/news-centre/news/2020/COVID19_Human_development_on_course_to_decline_for_the_first_time_since_1990.html.

COVID-19 Open Access Letter (2020) https://wellcome.ac.uk/sites/default/files/covid19-open-access-letter.pdf

COVID-19 Special Issue (2020) 42(9) EIPR

Caddick N, Davies G, Harbottle G (2016) Copinger and Skone James on copyright (17th edn). Sweet & Maxwell

Callaway E (2020) The unequal scramble for coronavirus vaccines - by the numbers. Nature 584:506

Cameron C (2006) In defiance of Bridgeman: claiming copyright in photographic reproductions of public domain works. Texas Intell Property Law J 15:31

Chakchouk M, Giannini S (2020) Call for joint action: supporting learning and knowledge sharing through open educational resources (OER)’ available at https://en.unesco.org/sites/default/files/covid19_joint_oer_call_en.pdf

Chander A, Sunder M (2004) The romance of the public domain. California Law Rev 92:1331

Chesbrough H (2003) Open Innovation: the new imperative for creating and profiting from technology. Harvard University Press

Chesbrough H, Vanhaverbeke W, West J (eds) (2013) Open innovation: researching a new paradigm. Oxford University Press

Chon M (2006) Intellectual property and the development divide. Cardozo Law Rev 27:2821

Cole P, Davis R (2019) CIPA Guide to the Patents Acts, 9th edn. Sweet & Maxwell, London

Contreras J, Jacob M (eds) (2017) Patent pledges: global perspectives on patent law’s private ordering frontier. Edward Elgar

Contreras J, Eisen M, Ganz A, Lemley M, Molloy J, Peters D, Tietze F (2020a) Pledging intellectual property for COVID-19. Nat Biotechnol 38:1146

Contreras J, Eisen M, Peters D (2020b) COVID-19: save lives with open intellectual-property licences. Nature 583:683

Cook T (2006) A European perspective as to the extent to which experimental use, and certain other defences to patent infringement, apply to differing Types of Research: a report for the intellectual property institute. Intellectual Property Institute, London

Correa C (2000) Intellectual property rights, the WTO and developing countries: the TRIPS agreement and policy options. Zed Books

Craig C (2014) Feminist aesthetics and copyright law: genius, value, and gendered visions of the creative self. Osgoode Legal Studies Research Paper Series, available at https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/olsrps/31

Craig C (2007) Reconstructing the author-self: some feminist lessons for copyright law. Soc Policy 15:62

Craig C (2011) Copyright Communication and culture. Towards a relational theory of copyright law. Edward Elgar

Crews K (2012) Museum policies and art images: conflicting objectives and copyright overreaching’. 22 Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal 795

Crissinger S (2015) A critical take on OER practices: interrogating commercialization, colonialism, and content – in the library with the lead pipe, available at http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2015/a-critical-take-on-oer-practices-interrogating-commercialization-colonialism-and-content/

DG Connect (2016) Living labs and open innovation (Shaping Europe’s digital future - European Commission), available at https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/living-labs-and-open-innovation

Domeij B (2000) Pharmaceutical patents in Europe. Stockholm Studies in Law, Kluwer Law International, The Hague

Drahos P, Braithwaite J (2002) Information feudalism: Who Owns the Knowledge Economy? Earthscan

Dryden J (2011) Copyfraud or legitimate concerns? Controlling further uses of online archival holdings’. Am Arch 74:522

Ebersole T, Guthrie M, Goldstein J (2005) Patent pools and standard setting in diagnostic genetics’. Nat Biotechnol 23(8):937

Fehrer P (2020) Pharma Companies are worried about pooling their IP. They shouldn’t be’ (Barron’s) available at https://www.barrons.com/articles/pharma-companies-are-worried-about-pooling-their-coronavirus-intellectual-property-they-shouldnt-be-51593178200

Fighting COVID-19 through digital innovation and transformation (2020) (UNESCO) https://en.unesco.org/covid19/communicationinformationresponse/digitalinnovation

Fisher W, Oberholzer-Gee F (2013) Strategic management of intellectual property: an Integrated Approach’. California Management Review 157

Fletcher ER, Hacker J, Hoecklin M (2020) Procure and supply vaccines through COVAX and not bilateral deals – WHO plea to countries and pharma’ (Health Policy Watch) https://healthpolicy-watch.news/fund-and-supply-vaccines-through-covax-and-not-bilateral-deals-pleads-who/

Frosio G (2012) Communia and the European Public Domain Project: a politics of the public domain. In: Dulong de Rosnay M, De Martin JC (eds), The digital public domain; foundations for an open culture. Open Book Publishers

Gana R (1996) The Myth of Development, The Progress of Rights: Human Rights to Intellectual Property and Development. Law Policy 18:315

Garrison C (2020) Never say never - Why the High Income Countries that opted-out from Art. 31bis WTO TRIPS system must urgently reconsider their decision in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic’ (Medicines Law & Policy) available at https://medicineslawandpolicy.org/2020/04/never-say-never-why-the-high-income-countries-that-opted-out-from-the-art-31bis-wto-trips-system-must-urgently-reconsider-their-decision-in-the-face-of-the-covid-19-pandemic/

Ginsburg J (1990) Creation and commercial value: copyright protection of works of information. Col L Rev 90:1865

Greenleaf G and Lindsay D (2018) Public rights: copyright’s public somains. Cambridge University Press

Gurry F (2020) Some Considerations on intellectual property, innovation, access and COVID-19’, available at https://www.wipo.int/about-wipo/en/dgo/news/2020/news_0025.html

Hadley W (2020) COVID-19 Impact: Museum Sector Research Findings Summary Report’ (Art Fund) available at https://www.artfund.org/assets/downloads/art-fund-covid19-research-report-final.pdf

Hawkins N, Garden H, Winickoff D (2021) Advancing Genomics and Biobanks for Personalised Medicine – building and sustaining collaborative platforms. OECD Science, Technology and Industry Working Papers 11 (in press)

Hill A et al (2020) Minimum costs to manufacture new treatments for COVID-19. J Virus Educ 6:61

Hope J (2008) Biobazaar: the open source revolution and biotechnology. Harvard University Press

Hudson E, Wragg P (2020) Proposals for copyright law and education during the COVID-19 pandemic’, available at https://ssrn.com/abstract=3617720

Iqbal Z, Iqbal Z, Sadaf S (2020) Impact of Bolar-exemption and compulsory licencing on market exclusivity and the public health crisis—perspective from developing countries. EIPR 42(6):364

Joint Letter to Dr Francis Gurry, Director General, World Intellectual Property Organization (2020) https://www.communia-association.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/200403-Joint-Letter-to-Dr-Francis-Gurry.pdf

Kapsalis E (2016) The impact of open access on galleries, libraries, museums, & archives (Smithsonian Institutes 2016) available at https://siarchives.si.edu/sites/default/files/pdfs/2016_03_10_OpenCollections_Public.pdf

Kaye J, Heeney C, Hawkins N, de Vries L, Boddington P (2009) Data sharing in genomics – re-shaping scientific practice. Nat Rev Genet 10:33

Kelly K (2013) Images of works of art in museum collections: the experience of open access. Council on Library and Information Resources

Lee N (2019) Intellectual Property Rights and open innovation in 3D printing: a different form of exclusivity. In: Drexl J, Kamperman Sanders A (eds), The Innovation Society and Intellectual Property. Edward Elgar

Lees N (2020) Covid-19 - Scientific Research on the Coronavirus Is Being Released in a Torrent’ (The Economist) available at https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2020/05/07/scientific-research-on-the-coronavirus-is-being-released-in-a-torrent

Leminen S, Westerlund M, Nyström A-G (2012) Living Labs as Open-Innovation Networks. Technology Innovation Management Review 6

Letter to ministers: Copyright and enabling remote learning and research during the COVID-19 crisis - UPDATED (2020) (RLUK Research Libraries UK) https://www.rluk.ac.uk/letter-to-ministers-copyright-and-enabling-remote-learning-and-research-during-the-covid-19-crisis/

Levine D (2020) COVID-19 Trade secrets and information access: an overview’ (Infojustice) available at http://infojustice.org/archives/42493

Li P, Lim PH (2014) A precautionary approach to compulsory licencing of medicines: tempering data exclusivity as an obstacle to access. IPQ 3:241

Light M (2015) Controlling goods or promoting the public good: choices for special collections in the marketplace. RBM A J Rare Books Manusc Cult Heritage 16:48

Love J (2020) Open letter asking 37 WTO members to declare themselves eligible to import medicines under compulsory licence in another country, under 31bis of TRIPS Agreement (KEI Online) https://www.keionline.org/32707

Manu T (2014) Essential medicines and the complexity of implementing nationally based compulsory licensing: on the need for a regional system of compulsory licensing in sub-Saharan Africa. EIPR 36(1):39

Mara K (2020) Decision on intellectual property waiver over Covid technology on hold till 2021 (Medicines Law & Policy) https://medicineslawandpolicy.org/2020/12/decision-on-intellectual-property-waiver-over-covid-technology-on-hold-till-2021-what-are-the-next-steps/

Matthews D (2020) Coronavirus: how countries aim to get the vaccine first by cutting opaque supply deals’ (The Conversation) available at https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-how-countries-aim-to-get-the-vaccine-first-by-cutting-opaque-supply-deals-143366

Mazzone J (2006) Copyfraud. New York University Law Review 81:1026

Mazzucato M (2017) Mission-oriented innovation policy: challenges and opportunities. UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose Working Paper

McCarthy D, Wallace A (2018) Survey of GLAM open access policy and practice’, available at http://bit.ly/OpenGLAMsurvey

McKinsey & Company (2014) Offline and falling behind: barriers to internet adoption’, available at https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-and-telecommunications/our-insights/offline-and-falling-behind-barriers-to-internet-adoption#

Merges R (2011) Justifying intellectual property. Harvard University Press

Moon S, Bermudez J, ‘t Hoen E (2012) Innovation and access to medicines for neglected populations: could a treaty address a broken pharmaceutical R&D system? PLoS Med 9(5)

Museums, Museum professionals and COVID-19 (ICOM 2020) https://icom.museum/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Report-Museums-and-COVID-19.pdf

Museums around the World in the face of COVID-19 (UNESCO 2020) https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000373530.

Mysoor P (2020) Capturing the dynamism of fairness: a common law perspective. In: Daniel Gervais (ed), Fairness, morality and ordre public in intellectual property. Edward Elgar

NHS England concludes wide-ranging deal for cystic fibrosis drugs (2019) https://www.england.nhs.uk/2019/10/nhs-england-concludes-wide-ranging-deal-for-cystic-fibrosis-drugs/

Neuburger J (2020) Open COVID pledge rolled out to make patents and other IP available for COVID-19 response’ (New Media and Technology Law Blog) available at https://newmedialaw.proskauer.com/2020/04/21/open-covid-pledge-rolled-out-to-make-patents-and-other-ip-available-for-covid-19-response/#page=1

Okediji R (1999) Copyright and public welfare in global perspective. Indiana J Global Legal Stud 7:75

Okediji R (2003) The international relations of intellectual property: narratives of developing country participation in the global intellectual property system. Singap J Int Comp Law 7:315

Otero B (2020) Thinking Slow about IP in Times of Pandemic. IIC 51:555

Owoeye O, Owoeye O (2018) Intellectual property, access to medicines and universal health coverage through a health right lens. EIPR 40(1):49

Pekel J (2015) Making a big impact on a small budget - how the LSH museums shared their collection with the world’ (Europeana 2015) available at http://pro.europeana.eu/blogpost/making-a-big-impact-on-a-small-budget-how-the-lsh-museums-share

Pila J (2017) The Subject-matter of intellectual property. Oxford University Press

Pogge T, Rimmer M, Rubenstein K (2014) Incentives for global public health: patent law and access to essential medicines. Cambridge University Press

Price N et al (2020) Knowledge transfer for large-scale vaccine manufacturing. Science 369(6505):912

Public Statement: Fair use & emergency remote teaching & research (2020) https://docs.google.com/document/d/10baTITJbFRh7D6dHVVvfgiGP2zqaMvm0EHHZYf2cBRk/edit

Rose M (1996) Mothers and authors: Johnson V, Calvert and the New Children of Our Imaginations. Critical Inquiry 22:613

Schmidt A (2017) MKG collection online: the potential of open museum collections. HJK 7:25

Shadlen K, Guennif S, Guzman A, Lalitha N (eds) (2013) Intellectual property, pharmaceuticals and public health: access to drugs in developing countries Edward Elgar

Stinson A, Fauconnier S, Wyatt L (2018) Stepping beyond libraries: the changing orientation in flobal GLAM-Wiki. JLIS.it 9:16

Stothers C, Morgan A (2020) IP and the Supply of COVID-19-related drugs. JIPLP 15(8):590

Strandburg K (2018) Users, patents and innovation policy. In: Dreyfuss R, Pila J (eds) The Oxford handbook of intellectual property law. Oxford University Press

Suber P (2012) Open access. The MIT Press

Sunder M (2006) IP3. Stanford Law Rev 59:257

‘Survey on the impact of the COVID-19 situation on museums in Europe’ (Network of European Museums Organisations 2020) https://www.ne-mo.org/fileadmin/Dateien/public/NEMO_documents/NEMO_Corona_Survey_Results_6_4_20.pdf

‘t Hoen E (2020a) The € 7.4 Billion for Covid-19 product and vaccine development needs a few strings attached (Medicines Law and Policy) available at https://medicineslawandpolicy.org/2020/05/the-e-7-4-billion-for-covid-19-product-and-vaccine-development-needs-a-few-strings-attached/

‘t Hoen E (2020b) Covid-19 Intellectual property pool gaining support’ (Medicines Law & Policy) available at https://medicineslawandpolicy.org/2020/04/covid-19-intellectual-property-pool-gaining-support/.

‘t Hoen E (2020c) Covid-19 and the comeback of compulsory licensing’ (Medicines Law & Policy) available at https://medicineslawandpolicy.org/2020/03/covid-19-and-the-come-back-of-compulsory-licensing/

‘t Hoen E, Berger J, Calamy A, Moon S (2011) Driving a decade of change: HIV/AIDS, patents and access to medicines for all. J Int AIDS Soc 14

‘t Hoen E, Boulet P (2021) The European Commission says Covid-19 vaccines should be global public goods, but do their agreements with pharma reflect this?’ (Medicines, Law & Policy) available at https://medicineslawandpolicy.org/2021/01/the-european-commission-says-covid-19-vaccines-should-be-global-public-goods-but-do-their-agreements-with-pharma-reflect-this/

Tanner S (2004) Reproduction charging models & rights policy for digital images in American Art Museums: a mellon foundation funded study 40, available at http://msc.mellon.org/msc-files/Reproduction%20charging%20models%20and%20rights%20policy.pdf

Taylor J, Gibson LK (2017) Digitisation, digital interaction and social media: embedded barriers to democratic heritage. Int J Heritage Stud 23:408

Thambisetty S (2019) Improving access to patented medicines: are human rights getting in the way? IPQ 4:284

Trimble M (2020) COVID-19 and Transnational Issues in Copyright and Related Rights. IIC 51:407

Tushnet R (2017) Intellectual property as a public interest mechanism. In: Dreyfuss R, Pila J (eds) The Oxford handbook of intellectual property law. Oxford University Press

UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (2018) The people’s prescription: re-imagining health innovation to deliver public value. IIPP Policy Report, London (IIPP, Global Justice Now, Just Treatment, STOPAIDS), available at: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/publications/2018/oct/peoples-prescription

UNAIDS (2020), ‘As pandemic deaths pass 1 million, COVID survivors from 37 countries write to pharmaceutical bosses to demand a People's Vaccine’ (UNAIDS) https://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/pressreleaseandstatementarchive/2020/september/20200929_covid-19-survivors-write-to-pharmaceutical-bosses-to-demand-a-peoples-vaccine

UNESCO Recommendation on Open Educational Resources (OER) (2019) http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=49556&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

Unitaid (2020) The Medicines Patent Pool and Unitaid Respond to Access Efforts for COVID-19 Treatments and Technologies’ (Unitaid) https://unitaid.org/news-blog/medicines-patent-pool-and-unitaid-respond-to-access-efforts-for-covid-19-treatments-and-technologies/#en

Valeonti F et al (2018) Reaping the benefits of digitisation: pilot study exploring revenue generation from digitised collections through technological innovation, available at https://www.scienceopen.com/document?vid=72172cf4-9b91-46cc-a494-bf95694a8610

Van Overwalle G (2015) Inventing inclusive patents: from old to new open innovation. In: Drahos P, Ghidini G, Ullrich H (eds) Kritika: essays on intellectual property. Edward Elgar

Van Overwalle G (2009) Gene patents and collaborative licensing models: patent pools, clearinghouses, open source models, and liability regimes. Cambridge University Press

van Zimmeren E, Van Overwalle G (2011) A paper tiger? Compulsory license regimes for public health in Europe. IIC 42:4

Vaver D (2013) Copyright defenses as user rights. J Copyright Soc USA 60(4):661

Verbeure B, van Zimmeren E, Matthijs G, Van Overwalle G (2006) Patent pools and diagnostic testing. Trends Biotechnol 24(3):115

Von Hippel E (2005) Democratizing innovation. The MIT Press

WHO Director-General’s opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 (2021) https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19-8-january-2021

WHO (2020) Commitments to share intellectual property, knowledge and data, https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/global-research-on-novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov/covid-19-technology-access-pool

WTO, Intellectual property and the public interest, https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/trips_e/trips_and_public_interest_e.htm

Wallace A, Deazley R (2016) Display At Your Own Risk, available at https://displayatyourownrisk.org/

Wallace A, Euler E (2020) Revisiting access to cultural heritage in the public domain: EU and international developments. IIC 51(7):823

Walsh K, Hawkins N (2020) Expanding the role of morality and public policy in European patent law. In: Torremans P (ed) Intellectual property and human rights. Wolters Kluwer

Wellcome (2020b) Coronavirus (COVID-19): sharing research data, https://wellcome.ac.uk/coronavirus-covid-19/open-data

Wellcome (2020a) Publishers Make Coronavirus (COVID-19) content freely available and reusable, https://wellcome.ac.uk/press-release/publishers-make-coronavirus-covid-19-content-freely-available-and-reusable