View this email in your browser

**MAY 7, 2021**

Kuttner on TAP

The Vaccine Waiver Invites Reform of Intellectual-Property Abuses

****

The drug industry is fiercely resisting Biden's proposed waiver of
intellectual-property protections, not just because of lost exorbitant
profits this year and next, but because the waiver is the proverbial
camel's nose under the tent.

And the industry is right. The entire intellectual-property regime of
patents, trademarks, and copyrights has become a protectionist racket to
favor incumbents, block innovators, promote monopoly prices, and harm
consumers.

The original idea of patents was to promote and reward invention. The
system has been turned into its opposite.

Over the past several decades, intellectual-property protection has been
a one-way ratchet-longer terms of patent protection for lifesaving
drugs; longer copyright protection for everything from music to digital
techniques; more subtle and insidious blocking techniques to resist
potential innovators who might provide competition.

The vaccine waiver falls under the jurisdiction of trade policy because
powerful industries managed to get the U.S. and other large countries to
lock in excessive patent protection via the WTO, under a 1994 agreement
known as TRIPS, which stands for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual
Property Rights.

TRIPS locks in pro-industry protections globally, and has been used over
the years to make it impossible for member nations to broaden what
should be in the public domain. It's an epic case of the use of
obscure trade rules to make it harder to regulate capitalism.

Domestically, jurisdiction over intellectual-property policy is split.
USTR handles trade. The FCC deals with what should be open and what
should be proprietary when it comes to the internet. The FDA deals with
abuses involving generic versus patent-protected drugs. From time to
time, the Federal Trade Commission has launched inquiries on general
questions of patent, trademark, and copyright policy.

While there are some admirable groups defending openness in particular
sectors, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation
,
there is no single public-interest group advocating the broadest
possible public domain against serial and cumulative abuses of patents,
trademarks, and copyrights.

Congressional jurisdiction is also split among several committees,
though Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT), who chairs the subcommittee on
intellectual property, is a great progressive and a natural candidate to
lead a broader inquiry. He is a longtime champion of global diffusion of
lifesaving drugs via the licensing provision allowed in TRIPS, and was
the lead Democratic sponsor of one of the few bipartisan consumer
protection bills signed into law by President Trump. Leahy's CREATES
Act deters drug companies from using a variety of deceptive techniques
to block generic producers from producing drugs once they are
off-patent.

Leahy has also been a foe of misuse of overly broad patents to
intimidate and demand license fees from independent companies using
well-established techniques in the public domain. One Vermont company,
successfully thwarted by Leahy and Vermont state officials, used an
overly broad patent to try to collect license fees from companies that
were converting scans to emails.

Excess intellectual-property protection, at the expense of the public
interest, is another of those creeping abuses of capitalism that have
just gotten away from us. Now the vaccine issue shines a useful light on
a broader imperative. Bring on that camel!

~ ROBERT KUTTNER

Follow Robert Kuttner on Twitter

Robert Kuttner's latest book is
The Stakes: 2020 and the Survival of American Democracy
.

[link removed]

This Small-Business Disaster Relief Program Is a Disaster

Targeted EIDL Advance, a $35 billion initiative for hard-hit businesses,
nonprofits, and freelancers, has caused headaches across the country
with delays and mismanagement. BY ANDREW GIAMBRONE

$15 an Hour for Federal Contractors Is Great. A Union Is Better.

Biden could kick-start labor organizing, without approval from Congress.
BY ELIAS ALSBERGAS

The Republican Rebrand, Exposed

The GOP's phony attempt to rebrand itself as the party of the working
class BY ROBERT REICH

Altercation: Court Says Bill Barr Lied. Why Didn't the Media?

Also, who quotes Elliott Abrams as an authority on human rights? BY
ERIC ALTERMAN

To receive this newsletter directly in your inbox, click here to
subscribe. 

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

YOUR TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATION SUPPORTS INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM

Copyright (c) 2021 The American Prospect. All rights reserved.
_________________

Sent to [email protected]

Unsubscribe:
[link removed]

The American Prospect, Inc., 1225 I Street NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC xxxxxx, United States