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Monday February 06, 2012 |
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The Globe's Jeffrey Simpson has an excellent
column
on the state of big pharma in Canada, noting that Canadians pay high
prices for pharmaceuticals but that big pharma has not met its
commitment to devote 10 percent of sales to research and
development.
Prices would increase further with potential legal reforms in the
Canada - EU Trade Agreement.
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Thursday January 26, 2012 |
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Canada's offer to the Europeans in the Canada-EU Trade Agreement
negotiations on several key areas leaked yesterday. The
documents reveal that Canada wants both telecom foreign ownership and
cultural protections kept out the agreement.
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Monday July 25, 2011 |
The latest round of the Canada - EU trade agreement negotiations
recently concluded in Brussels and Canadian officials provided an
update to civil society groups on Friday. While officials indicated
that there has been progress on many fronts, the intellectual property
chapter is not one of them. The EU is demanding dramatic changes to
Canadian intellectual property law including significant reforms to
copyright, patent, and geographical indications (more on the CETA IP
provisions and their implications here and here).
Officials indicated that it was difficult to discuss the copyright
chapter without the return of Bill C-32. Once a bill is tabled, they
expect talks on the issue to accelerate. In addition to the
substantive provisions found in C-32, the EU is also focused on
enforcement-related provisions. Officials indicated that the EU demands
will likely be similar to those found in the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade
Agreement. They acknowledged that new legislation will needed to comply
with these treaties, suggesting that a second copyright bill focused on
enforcement (including new border measures provisions) will quickly
follow the C-32 bill. On the patent front, the large brand name
pharmaceutical companies are supporting further change to Canadian law,
while the generic pharmaceutical companies oppose reforms. The issue
is a big priority for the EU, but no progress was made to resolve the
stalemate.
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Monday June 13, 2011 |
As Canada and the European Union continue their negotiations on a trade
deal, a source has provided a copy of the EU proposal for the criminal
intellectual property provisions. The IP criminal provisions was the
one aspect left out of early drafts (the CETA leak from last year is available here). The
initial EU proposal uses the Anti-Counterfeiting
Trade Agreement's
criminal provisions as the model. This includes ACTA Article 23 on
Criminal Offences (criminal provisions for wilful trademark
counterfeiting or copyright piracy on a commercial scale), ACTA Article
24 on Penalties (including imprisonment), ACTA Article 25 on Seizure,
Forfeiture, and Destruction, and ACTA Article 26 on Ex Officio Criminal
Enforcement. Several of these provisions would require domestic
legislative change in Canada that were not found in Bill C-32
(suggesting that an IP enforcement bill will be introduced sometime in
the near future).
Much like in ACTA negotiations, the EU is rejecting the request for
inclusion of an anti-camcording provision in CETA. Canada enacted
anti-camcording measures under pressure from the U.S. several years
ago. The U.S. sought similar provisions in ACTA, but the EU ensured
that the provision was optional, not mandatory.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the EU criminal IP proposal is
the internal divide over whether it should extend beyond ACTA to create
an
ACTA+. According to documents I've seen, Italy has called for the
broadest possible scope for CETA, including geographical indications
(yes, criminal provisions for geographical indications). Despite the
fact that this extends well beyond ACTA, the Italian position is
supported by Portugal, Greece, France, Romania, and the Czech Republic.
In fact, the Czech Republic would also like to extend the criminal
provisions to designs. The UK, Austria, and Finland oppose extending
the provision beyond ACTA. The decision was ultimately made to start
by proposing the ACTA language and consider progress on the remaining
IP related
issues in CETA before escalating European demands.
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