Copyright (c) 2009 All rights reserved. http://works.bepress.com/matthew_rimmer Recent documents in Matthew Rimmer en-us Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:29:48 PDT 3600 http://works.bepress.com/matthew_rimmer/81 http://works.bepress.com/matthew_rimmer/81 Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:14:04 PDT Thank you for the opportunity to make a submission to your inquiry into the effectiveness of the House Committees. Our Parliamentary committees have six basic roles: to advise, to inquire, to administrate, to legislate, to negotiate, and to scrutinise and control'. After a slow start in Australia, committees have become increasingly important to democratic governance in Australia.The committees' effective performance of their tasks are vital to a healthy Australian democracy. It is our experience, as frequent participants in parliamentary committee inquiries, that the committees are not sufficiently resourced, in time and personnel, to effectively discharge their increasingly important role. Simon Rice Law Reform and Social Justice http://works.bepress.com/matthew_rimmer/80 http://works.bepress.com/matthew_rimmer/80 Sun, 13 Sep 2009 21:21:48 PDT There are currently no regulatory mechanisms, laws or policies that specifically provide rights to Indigenous peoples over their Indigenous knowledge and intellectual property. We strongly recommend that the commonwealth take the lead to ensure that national sui generis laws are developed (perhaps to operate initially in areas of Cth jurisdiction, such as IPAs and national parks). The development of such laws should be in tandem with practical guidelines to assist their implementation. A comprehensive, nationally consistent scheme for access to genetic resources, which offers meaningful protection of traditional knowledge and substantive benefit-sharing with Indigenous communities, has to be developed. There are already a range of reports/resources that urge these same reforms and that we direct the Enquiry to again; these include the Voumard Report (2000) - especially Fourmile's Appendix 10 - "Indigenous Interests", and Terri Jankes "Our Culture, Our Future (1998). Sarah Holcombe Traditional Knowledge Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit-Sharing http://works.bepress.com/matthew_rimmer/79 http://works.bepress.com/matthew_rimmer/79 Sun, 13 Sep 2009 20:25:44 PDT I am a senior lecturer and the associate director for research at the Australian National University College of Law based in Canberra, Australia. I am also an associate director of the Australian Centre for Intellectual Property in Agriculture (ACIPA). I have a BA (Hons) and a University Medal in literature, and a LLB (Hons) from the Australian National University, and a PhD in law from the University of New South Wales. I am a member of the Copyright and Intellectual Property Advisory Group of the Australian Library and Information Association, and a director of the Australian Digital Alliance. I am the author of two books, Digital Copyright and the Consumer Revolution: Hands off my iPod, and Intellectual Property and Biotechnology: Biological Inventions, and the editor of the collection, Patent Law and Biological Inventions, and co-editor of the collection, Incentives for Global Public Health: Patent Law and Access to Essential Medicines. I have also published three book chapters and thirty-eighty refereed articles.I have particular expertise in the field of intellectual property and biotechnology - having looked at the implications of intellectual property rights for agriculture, health-care, research, and the environment. I am the author of Intellectual Property and Biotechnology: Biological Inventions (Edward Elgar, 2008). This book documents and evaluates the dramatic expansion of intellectual property law to accommodate various forms of biotechnology from micro-organisms, plants, and animals to human genes and stem cells. It makes a unique theoretical contribution to the controversial public debate over the commercialisation of biological inventions. I also edited the thematic issue of Law in Context, entitled Patent Law and Biological Inventions (Federation Press, 2006). I was also a chief investigator in an Australian Research Council Discovery Project, "Gene Patents In Australia: Options For Reform" (2003-2005), and an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant, "The Protection of Botanical Inventions (2003). I am currently a chief investigator in an Australian Research Council Discovery Project, "Promoting Plant Innovation in Australia" (2009-2011). I have participated in inquiries into plant breeders' rights, gene patents, and access to genetic resources.To assist the Senate Community Affairs Committee in its inquiry into gene patents, I would like to provide the members with copies of my research in respect of gene patents. This material will have to be treated as exhibits for the purposes of the inquiry.I would be happy to appear before the Senate Community Affairs Committee to discuss the policy issues, which have arisen in respect of intellectual property and biotechnology. Matthew Rimmer Patent Law http://works.bepress.com/matthew_rimmer/78 http://works.bepress.com/matthew_rimmer/78 Sun, 13 Sep 2009 17:23:18 PDT The draft negotiating text on long-term co-operative action under the United Nations Framework on Climate Change FCCC/AWGLCA/2009/8; the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 2010 and 2011 HR 2410 (United States); the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 HR 2454 (United States); the Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act 2010 HR. 3081 (United States); and the TRIPS Agreement 1994.In the lead-up to the discussions over IP and climate change in Copenhagen in 2009, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution that it should be the policy of US government officials in discussions over the long-term action under the United Nations Framework on Climate Change to 'prevent any weakening of, and ensure robust compliance with and enforcement of, existing international legal requirements as of the date of the enactment of this Act for the protection of IP rights related to energy or environmental technology'. Matthew Rimmer Patent Law http://works.bepress.com/matthew_rimmer/77 http://works.bepress.com/matthew_rimmer/77 Sun, 23 Aug 2009 22:34:02 PDT This review essay pays homage to a number of recent texts and films dealing with Canadian intellectual property. First, it considers Ysolde Gendreau's collection, An Emerging Intellectual Property Paradigm: Perspectives from Canada. Second, this essay looks at Laura Murray and Samuel Trosow's manual, Canadian Copyright: A Citizen's Guide. Finally, this review evaluates Brett Gaylor's documentary, RiP! A Remix Manifesto. The three works share certain affinities--a spirit of scepticism about the legitimacy and the efficacy of existing networks of law, policy and bureaucracy; a populist interest in the impact of intellectual property on the everyday lives of citizens, creators and consumers; a passion for human rights; and a melioristic desire for sensible law reform of copyright law and related regimes of intellectual property. Matthew Rimmer Copyright Law http://works.bepress.com/matthew_rimmer/76 http://works.bepress.com/matthew_rimmer/76 Sun, 23 Aug 2009 22:29:38 PDT This review essay considers three recent books, which have explored the legal dimensions of new media. In contrast to the unbridled exuberance of Time Magazine, this series of legal works displays an anxious trepidation about the legal ramifications associated with the rise of social networking services. In his tour de force, The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet, Daniel Solove considers the implications of social networking services, such as Facebook and YouTube, for the legal protection of reputation under privacy law and defamation law. Andrew Kenyon's edited collection, TV Futures: Digital Television Policy in Australia, explores the intersection between media law and copyright law in the regulation of digital television and Internet videos. In The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It, Jonathan Zittrain explores the impact of 'generative' technologies and 'tethered applications'--considering everything from the Apple Mac and the iPhone to the One Laptop per Child programme. Matthew Rimmer Media and Communications Law http://works.bepress.com/matthew_rimmer/74 http://works.bepress.com/matthew_rimmer/74 Tue, 07 Jul 2009 20:12:37 PDT Historically, there have been intense conflicts over the ownership and exploitation of pharmaceutical drugs and diagnostic tests dealing with infectious diseases.Throughout the 1980's, there was much scientific, legal, and ethical debate about which scientific group should be credited with the discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus, and the invention of the blood test devised to detect antibodies to the virus. In May 1983, Luc Montagnier, Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, and other French scientists from the Pasteur Institute in Paris, published a paper in Science, detailing the discovery of a virus called lymphadenopathy (LAV). A scientific rival, Robert Gallo of the National Cancer Institute, identified the AIDS virus and published his findings in the May 1984 issue of Science. In May 1985, the United States Patent and Trademark Office awarded the American patent for the AIDS blood test to Gallo and the Department of Health and Human Services. In December 1985, the Institut Pasteur sued the Department of Health and Human Services, contending that the French were the first to identify the AIDS virus and to invent the antibody test, and that the American test was dependent upon the French research.In March 1987, an agreement was brokered by President Ronald Reagan and French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac, which resulted in the Department of Health and Human Services and the Institut Pasteur sharing the patent rights to the blood test for AIDS. In 1992, the Federal Office of Research Integrity found that Gallo had committed scientific misconduct, by falsely reporting facts in his 1984 scientific paper. A subsequent investigation by the National Institutes of Health, the United States Congress, and the US attorney-general cleared Gallo of any wrongdoing.In 1994, the United States government and French government renegotiated their agreement regarding the AIDS blood test patent, in order to make the distribution of royalties more equitable...The dispute between Luc Montagnier and Robert Gallo was not an isolated case of scientific rivalry and patent races. It foreshadowed further patent conflicts over research in respect of HIV/AIDS. Michael Kirby, former Justice of the High Court of Australia diagnosed a clash between two distinct schools of philosophy -- 'scientists of the old school... working by serendipity with free sharing of knowledge and research', and 'those of the new school who saw the hope of progress as lying in huge investments in scientific experimentation.' Indeed, the patent race between Robert Gallo and Luc Montagnier has been a precursor to broader trade disputes over access to essential medicines in the 1990s and 2000s. The dispute between Robert Gallo and Luc Montagnier captures in microcosm a number of themes of this book: the fierce competition for intellectual property rights; the clash between sovereign states over access to medicines; the pressing need to defend human rights, particularly the right to health; and the need for new incentives for research and development to combat infectious diseases as both an international and domestic issue. Thomas Pogge Trade Mark Law Patent Law International Intellectual Property Access to Essential Medicines http://works.bepress.com/matthew_rimmer/73 http://works.bepress.com/matthew_rimmer/73 Fri, 10 Apr 2009 17:51:00 PDT In the landmark 2008 case Warner Bros and JKRowling v RDR Books, Patterson J of the US DistrictCourt for the Southern District of New York held that thepublishers of the Harry Potter Lexicon infringed thecopyright of JK Rowling and Warner Brothers in suchworks as the Harry Potter series, Fantastic Beasts &Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages...In the key ratio in his ruling in Warner Bros and JKRowling v RDR Books, Patterson J held:'In striking the balance between the property rights oforiginal authors and the freedom of expression of secondaryauthors, reference guides to works of literature shouldgenerally be encouraged by copyright law as they providea benefit to readers and students; but to borrow fromRowling's overstated views, they should not be permittedto "plunder" the works of original authors, "without payingthe customary price" lest original authors lose incentive tocreate new works that will also benefit the public interest.' Matthew Rimmer Copyright Law http://works.bepress.com/matthew_rimmer/72 http://works.bepress.com/matthew_rimmer/72 Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:43:08 PDT Abstract: IntroductionAccess to Essential Medicines: Public Health and International LawProfessor Thomas Pogge, Dr Matthew Rimmer, and Professor Kim RubensteinPart I International Trade1. TRIPS and Essential Medicines: Must One Size Fit All? Making the WTO Responsive to the Global Health CrisisProfessor Rochelle Cooper Dreyfuss, New York University2. The TRIPS Waiver as a Recognition of Public Health Concerns in the WTOAssociate Professor Andrew Mitchell and Associate Professor Tania Voon, University of Melbourne3. Public Law Challenges to the Regulation of Pharmaceutical Patents in the US Bilateral Free Trade AgreementsDr Hitoshi Nasu, The Australian National University4. Global Health and Development: Patents and Public InterestAssociate Professor Elizabeth Siew Kuan Ng, National University of SingaporePart II Innovation5. The Health Impact Fund: Boosting Innovation without Obstructing Free AccessProfessor Thomas Pogge, Yale University and The Australian National University6. The Health Impact Fund: A CritiqueDr Kathleen Liddell, University of Cambridge7. A Prize System as a Partial Solution to the Health Crisis in the Developing WorldProfessor William W. Fisher and Talha Syed, Harvard Law School8. Innovation and Insufficient Evidence: The Case for a WTO-WHO Agreement on Health Technology Safety and Cost-Effectiveness EvaluationAssociate Professor Thomas Faunce, The Australian National UniversityPart III Intellectual Property9. Opening the Dam: Patent Pools, Innovation, and Access to Essential MedicinesProfessor Dianne Nicol and Dr Jane Nielsen, University of Tasmania10. Open Source Drug Discovery: A Revolutionary Paradigm or a Utopian Model?Dr Krishna Ravi Srinivas, Research Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), India11. Accessing and Benefit Sharing Avian Influenza Viruses through the World Health Organisation: a CBD and TRIPS Compromise thanks to Indonesia's Sovereignty Claim?Dr Charles Lawson, Griffith University Faculty of Law and Associate Professor Barbara Hocking, Queensland University of Technology12. The Lazarus Effect: The (RED) Campaign and Creative CapitalismDr Matthew Rimmer, The Australian National UniversityPart IV Health-Care13. Beyond TRIPS: The Role of Non-state Actors and Access to Essential MedicinesProfessor Noah Benjamin Novogrodsky, University of Toronto14. Securing Health Through RightsKatharine Young, Harvard University15. The Role of National laws in Reconciling Constitutional Right to Health with TRIPS Obligations: An Examination of the Glivec Patent Case in IndiaDr Rajshree Chandra, Delhi University16. Tipping Point: Thai Compulsory Licenses Redefine Essential Medicines DebateJonathan Burton-MacLeod, The Australian National UniversityBibliography Thomas Pogge Patent Law Access to Essential Medicines http://works.bepress.com/matthew_rimmer/71 http://works.bepress.com/matthew_rimmer/71 Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:38:30 PDT Patent law provides exclusive rights to exploit scientific inventions, which are novel, inventive, and useful. The regime is intended to promote innovation, investment in research and development, and access to scientific information.In recent times, there have been concerns that the patent system has been abused by opportunistic companies known by the phrase "patent trolls". It has been alleged that such entities have stunted innovation and spurred unnecessary patent litigation. Adam Jaffe and Josh Lerner discuss such pathologies of patent law in their book, Innovation and Its Discontents: How our Broken Patent System is Endangering Innovation and Progress, and What To Do About It. James Bessen and Michael Meurer have addressed such concerns in their recent text, Patent Failure: How Judges, Bureaucrats, and Lawyers Put Innovators at Risk.There have been particular fears about the rise of "patent trolls" in the field of information technology. Peter Dekin, an assistant general counsel at Intel, used the phrase "patent troll" to describe firms, which acquired patents only to extract settlements from companies on dubious infringement claims. Matthew Rimmer Patent Law