Source: https://www.keionline.org/book/timelines/timeline-of-privileges-regarding-the-commercialization-and-use-of-knowledge-part-2-1980-to-1999/
Timestamp: 2017-11-23 14:32:16
Document Index: 450814256

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 2', 'art 2', 'art 2', 'sui generis', 'art 1', 'art 3']

Timeline of privileges regarding the commercialization and use of knowledge. Part 2: 1980 to 1999 |Knowledge Ecology International
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Part 2: 1980 to 1999
February 18, 1983. A U.S. Presidential Memorandum on “Government Patent Policy” was issued. The 1980 Bayh-Dole Act did not give large businesses the right to retain title to their federally funded inventions. The President Reagan Memorandum, followed by an Executive Order in 1987, directed federal agencies, to the extent permitted by law, to extend policies for “all businesses”.
Oct. 19, 1983. The USPTO, EPO and JPO meet in the First Trilateral Conference held in Washington.
“Expresses the sense of Congress that copyright protection is essential for computer software and lack of such protection or the use of other legal protections incorporating compulsory licensing would undermine the computer software industry here and abroad. States that any nation’s withdrawal of copyright protection or instigation of broad compulsory licensing of software should be opposed under the Universal Copyright Convention or through other avenues.”
Senate Amendment 4250 to H.R.3398 was titled “To provide further protections of intellectual property rights,” which had no cosponsors, was also agreed to in Senate by a voice vote:
Title V: Generalized System of Preferences Renewal – Generalized System of Preferences Renewal Act of 1984 – Amends the Trade Act of 1974. . . . Directs the President, in determining whether to designate a country a beneficiary developing country, to consider: (1) the extent to which such country is providing the means for foreign nationals to exercise exclusive rights in intellectual property, including a patent, trademark, and copyright rights; (2) the extent to which such country has taken action to reduce trade distorting investment practices and policies and to reduce or eliminate barriers to trade in services; and (3) whether such country has taken or is taking steps to give to workers internationally recognized worker rights.
March 12, 1985. In a report to WIPO and UNESCO, Wanda Noel recommends a new international instrument on copyright exceptions to facilitate cross-border sharing of works for persons with disabilities created under copyright exceptions.
June 1985. Japan amended its copyright law to address the protection of computer software programs.
December 1985. The Reagan Administration published OMB Circular A-130, which in its original form, created a policy of relying upon the commercial private sector to disseminate government information to the public.
March 1986. The Intellectual Property Committee (IPC) formed with a general mission to develop international support for improved protection of patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets, and the specific objective of obtaining support for including intellectual property rights as a subject in the WTO, a topic that would be discussed in September 1986 in Punta Del Este, Uruguay. The founding members of the IPC inlcuded Bristol-Myers, DuPont, FMC Corporation, General Electric, General Motors, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Monsanto, Pfizer, Rockwell International and Warner Communications.
September 20, 1986. Agreement was reached in Punta Del Este, Uruguay to include intellectual property as a subject in the discussions to create the WTO. The relevant document was the Punta Del Este Declaration Ministerial Declaration of 20 September 1986.
September 14, 1987. USTR hearings on Brazil and Pharmaceutical patents, in response to PMA’s 301 complaint.
July 21, 1988. President Reagan publicly stated Brazil’s policy on patent protection was “unreasonable and imposed restriction upon United States commerce,” and that he would take appropriate action under section 301.
US: Aug. 23, 1988. PL 100-418, the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act. This law creating the Special 301 list. Also included was the “Process Patent Amendments Act of 1988,” which, among other things, gave the right to exclude others from importing into the United States products made by a patented process.
May 25, 1989. The first USTR Special 301 list was published. The first priority watch list included the following countries: Brazil, China (People’s Republic of), India, Mexico, Korea (Republic of), Saudi Arabia, Taiwan and Thailand. The first “watch list” included Argentina, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, Greece, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, Venezuela and Yugoslavia.
On July 3, 1989. A meeting of the Negotiating Group on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, including trade in Counterfeit Goods, received complaint from “a number of participants” [MTN.GNG/NG11/13, paragraph 4] that the U.S. Special 301 priority watch list was “jeopardising the work of the Negotiating Groups and threatened to wreck the Uruguay Round.”
February 15, 1990. The WIPO International Bureau distributed a Draft Patent Law Treaty.
March 27, 1990. The European Union provided a draft agreement on trade related aspects of intellectual property rights to the GATT Negotiating Group on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, including Trade in Counterfeit Goods. The proposal was a comprehensive draft of the entire TRIPS agreement. The proposal by Europe, and a subsequent proposal by the U.S., were greatly influenced if not written by lobbyists for large pharmaceutical, publishing, and computer industry lobbies, led by Pfizer and IBM.
May 11, 1990. The United States tabled its own “Draft Agreement on the trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights” as MTN.GNG/NG11/W/70.
June 27, 1990. USTR “determined that it was in the interest of the United States to terminate the application of the increased duties…effective July 2, 1990”
July 23,1990. The Chairman’s Report to the GNG presented a draft consolidated text for the TRIPS Agreement. (MTN.GNG/NG11/W/76). This included, among other subjects, in Part IX, a proposal for an agreement on “Trade in Counterfeit and Pirated Goods.”
March 27, 1991. In Feist Publications, Inc., v. Rural Telephone Service Co., the U.S. Supreme Court held that facts were not subject to copyright, rejecting the “sweat of the brow” argument for copyright protection.
December 20, 1991. GATT Director General Dunkel tabled a “Draft Final Act Embodying the Results of the Uruguay Round of Mulitnational Trade Negotiations,” which was later referred to as the “Dunkel Draft.” (MtN.TNC/W/FA 20 December 1991)
June 1992. The Canada federal government introduced Bill C-91, which became the Patent Act Amendment Act, 1992, and was passed by Parliament in 1993. This bill effectively eliminated the general compulsory licensing of pharmaceutical products in Canada, and facilitated Canada’s entry into NAFTA.
December 9-11, 1994. Negotiations for a new Free Trade Area for the Americas (FTAA) were launced in Miami.
February 10, 1995. A key U.S. Congressional Committee rejected a proposed amendment to a federal statute that would have created a sui generis right in “value added” to government information.
April 11, 1995. Pressured by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, NIH abandoned its “Reasonable Pricing” clause in licenses and CRADA agreements. The NY Times report on the decision is here. A subsequent rationale was offered here.
August 12, 1995. The Eurasian Patent Convention entered into force.
March 11, 1996. The European Union adopted “Directive 96/9/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 1996 on the legal protection of databases.”
January 15th, 1997. USTR-Designate Barshefsky announced GSP sanctions against Argentina for continuing IPR Problems. Among the complaints detailed in the USTR press release was this: “Argentine pharmaceutical interests continue to work aggressively to frustrate our efforts to achieve improved intellectual property protection in other countries.”
August 1997. Cellpro’s March-In Rights petition was rejected by the NIH.
May 1998. The World Health Assembly engaged in a bitter debate over a proposed resolution on a Revised Drug Strategy. This May 27, 1998 U.S. Department of State cable provides a summary of the debate from the perspective of the United States.
July 6, 1998. Directive 98/44/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the legal protection of biotechnological inventions. Among other things, the EU Directive ensured that certain biotechnology innovations would be protected by patents, while creating a mandatory compulsory license on both patents and plant breeder rights, for persons who made improvements to either.
May 1998. The WHO’s World Health Assembly meeting is deadlocked over a resolution dealing with intellectual property rights and health.
June 16, 1999. US AIDS activists beging a series of “zaps” of the Al Gore presidential compaign, to highlight concerns over US trade policy on intellectual property rights for medicines in South Africa.
Recent Key Milestones of Progress in IP Protection
U.S. – PTE 1984* Romania 1992 Poland 1993
Korea 1986 Taiwan 1992 EU – PTE 1993*
Japan – PTE 1987* New Zealand 1992** Philippines 1993
Czech Republic 1990 Russia 1992 Portugal 1993
Slovak Republic 1990 Thailand 1992 Slovenia 1993
Bulgaria 1991 Ukraine 1992 NAFTA 1993
Mexico 1991 Spain 1992 Macedonia 1993
Indonesia 1991 Canada 1987, 1993** Andean Pact 1994
Chile 1991 China 1993 Hungary 1994
Belarus 1991 Yugoslavia 1993 WTO 1995
* PTE = Patent Term Extension
** Improvements in Protection from Compulsory Licensing
Appendix 3 Some other timelines
Four Years of Struggles to Free the Law, Background Comments for Conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy, 1995 (CFP-95), Panel on “Who Owns the Law”, March 31, 1995.
Jennifer Ellen Mattson, “1999 Collaboration between the US government and pharmaceutical industry to oppose Philippine government effort to promote expanded use of generics for off-patented drugs,” February 9, 2005.
Margaret Smith, Patent Protection For Pharmaceutical Products In Canada – Chronology Of Significant Events, Law and Government Division 30 March 2000.
Appendix 4 – Selected biography
Adrian Otten, and Hannu Wage, Compliance with TRIPS: The Emerging World View; 29 Vand. Journal of Transnational Law 391 (1996)
Carlos Correa, Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, A Commentary on the TRIPS Agreement, 2007
Daniel Gervais, TRIPS Agreement – Drafting History and Analysis -2003.
Ellen F.M. ‘t Hoen, The Global Politics of Pharmaceutical Monopoly Power, Drug patents, access, innovation and the application of the WTO Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health. 2009
Ruth Okediji, Public Welfare and the Role of the WTO: Reconsidering the Trips Agreement, 7 Emory Int’l L. Rev. 819 (2003)
Susan Sell, Private Power, Public Law: The Globalization of Intellectual Property Rights. 2003.
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