scholarly journals Decolonising human rights: how intellectual property laws result in unequal access to the COVID-19 vaccine

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (7) ◽  
pp. e006169
Author(s):  
Sharifah Sekalala ◽  
Lisa Forman ◽  
Timothy Hodgson ◽  
Moses Mulumba ◽  
Hadijah Namyalo-Ganafa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Access To Medicines ◽  
Global South ◽  
Essential Medicines ◽  
Property Law ◽  
Intellectual Property Law ◽  
Marginalised Groups ◽  
The Right

The recent rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines offers hope in addressing the worst pandemic in a hundred years. However, many countries in the Global South face great difficulties in accessing vaccines, partly because of restrictive intellectual property law. These laws exacerbate both global and domestic inequalities and prevent countries from fully realising the right to health for all their people. Commodification of essential medicines, such as vaccines, pushes poorer countries into extreme debt and reproduces national inequalities that discriminate against marginalised groups. This article explains how a decolonial framing of human rights and public health could contribute to addressing this systemic injustice. We envisage a human rights and global health law framework based on solidarity and international cooperation that focuses funding on long-term goals and frees access to medicines from the restrictions of intellectual property law. This would increase domestic vaccine production, acquisition and distribution capabilities in the Global South.

scholarly journals The Right to Take Part in Cultural Life: On Copyright and Human Rights

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lea Shaver
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Digital Culture ◽  
Property Law ◽  
Cultural Inheritance ◽  
Intellectual Property Law ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
The Right

Article 15(1)(a) of the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights -- a source of binding law in 160 countries -- recognizes “the right of everyone to take part in cultural life.” This article suggests how lawmakers and jurists might give meaning to this provision, with particular attention to issues arising in an age of digital culture. The authors conclude that the right to take part in cultural life should be understood in terms of the ability to access, enjoy, engage, and extend upon a common cultural inheritance and that realizing this right will require significant reforms in international intellectual property law.

Beyond Unbridled Optimism and Fear: Indigenous Peoples, Intellectual Property, Human Rights and the Globalisation of Traditional Knowledge and Expressions of Folklore: Part I

2013 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 319-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Joan S. Picart ◽  
Caroline Joan S. Picart ◽  
Marlowe Fox
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Property Rights ◽  
Traditional Knowledge ◽  
Intellectual Property Rights ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Property Law ◽  
Cultural Expression ◽  
Intellectual Property Law ◽  
Traditional Cultural Expressions

Abstract This article is the first part of a two-part piece, which considers the intellectual property rights of indigenous peoples. After establishing pragmatic working definitions of who “indigenous peoples” are and what folklore (or “traditional cultural expression”) is, as compared with, but dialectically related to, “traditional knowledge,” this article does the following: 1) explains why western assumptions built into intellectual property law make this area of law a problematic tool for protecting traditional knowledge (TK) and expressions of folklore (EoF) or traditional cultural expressions (TCE) of indigenous peoples; and 2) creates a general sketch of human rights related legal instruments that could be and have been harnessed, with varying degrees of success, in the protection of the intellectual property of indigenous peoples.

scholarly journals BENEFITS AND LIMITATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION IN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW DISPUTES

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (40) ◽  
Author(s):  
Njegoslav Jović
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Intellectual Property Rights ◽  
State Courts ◽  
Property Law ◽  
International Arbitration ◽  
Intellectual Property Law ◽  
Judicial Practice ◽  
Primary Activity ◽  
Court Proceedings ◽  
The Right

In this paper, the author analyzes the benefits and limitationsof international arbitration in disputes that are subject to intellectual propertyrights. Intellectual property law disputes have special characteristics. In theevent of a dispute with an international element, there is a problem with thejurisdiction of state courts due to the principle of the territoriality of intellectualproperty rights. The titular of the right must initiate court proceedings in allcountries individually, leading to delays in procedures, multiplication of costsand uneven judicial practice. For these reasons, the author analyzes alternativedispute resolution through arbitration to determine whether this method ofdispute resolution is more acceptable to foreign courts.The author particularly pays attention to the WIPO Center for Arbitrationand Mediation as a permanent arbitration institution whose primary activity isthe resolution of disputes in the field of intellectual property rights.

scholarly journals Smart Grids and Machine Learning in Chinese and Western Intellectual Property Law

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Papastefanou
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Smart Grids ◽  
Power Grids ◽  
Learning Technology ◽  
Property Law ◽  
Intellectual Property Law ◽  
Smart Systems ◽  
Basic Functions ◽  
The Right

AbstractHaving huge power grids successfully integrate sustainable energy sources requires a smart and flexible power grid management system. Such smart systems have to adapt fast and accurately to a great amount of data input – a task which is made easier by applying modern machine learning technology. Solutions crafted by dynamic and powerful computing algorithms have the potential to surpass human cognitive capabilities. The question arises whether and how intellectual property law can be used to set the right incentives. This paper initially describes the basic functions of smart grids and the corresponding necessity of machine learning. Subsequently, it will analyze the current approaches of the most relevant patent offices in dealing with the challenges of AI-related smart grid inventions. Ultimately, it will be demonstrated that the contemporary discussions fail to focus on practical considerations of market entry possibilities that might be more promising than the approach of creating new exclusionary intellectual property rights.

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