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WIPO General Assembly Meeting on SCCR Expresses Consensus for Progress on Broadcast and L&E Instruments. Appendix: Excerpts from Delegation Statements on the SCCR at the 2025 General Assembly

Sean Flynn, Luca Schirru, Talia Deady  In a previous blog post, we analyzed the statements of regional groups and delegations during the 2025 WIPO General Assembly review of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR). Here we share fuller excerpts of those statements, which may be useful to researchers and others closely following […]

Tanuja Garde Appointed Director of WTO’s IP Division

In July 2025, Tanuja Garde assumed the role of Director of the Intellectual Property, Government Procurement and Competition Division at the World Trade Organization (WTO). She holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Duke University and a Juris Doctor from the Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. Before joining the WTO, Garde was […]

Torres Strait Islander climate change decision by Fed Court at odds with UN

16 July 2025 QUT legal expert Professor Mathew Rimmer is available to speak on the yesterday’s decision: · Judge doubted negligence law appropriate vehicle to deal with climate change matters · Judge said action on climate change a political matter for Fed Govt · The judge maintained Torres Strait Islanders’ only recourse was via ‘the […]

A first look into the JURI draft report on copyright and AI

This post was originally published on COMMUNIA by Teresa Nobre and Leander Nielbock Last week we saw the first draft of the long-anticipated own-initiative report on copyright and generative artificial intelligence authored by Axel Voss for the JURI Committee (download as a PDF file). The report, which marks the third entry of the Committee’s recent push on the topic […]

Danish Bill Proposes Using Copyright Law to Combat Deepfakes

Luca Schirru Recently, a Danish Bill has been making headlines by addressing issues related to deepfake through a rather uncommon approach: copyright. As stated to The Guardian, the Danish Minister of Culture, Jakob Engel-Schmidt, explained that they “are sending an unequivocal message that everybody has the right to their own body, their own voice and […]

User Rights Network on SCCR Calls for Progress

Sean Flynn The following statement was delivered by Professor Sean Flynn on behalf of the Global Expert Network on Copyright User Rights at the World Intellectual Property Organization General Assembly meeting on the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights.  …. I speak on behalf of the User Rights Network of copyright academics around the […]

WIPO DDG Expresses “Frustration” and “Bitterness” and Calls for Risk Taking for Progress

Sean Flynn The World Intellectual Property Organization General Assembly’s consideration of the work of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) began with a report by Ms. Sylvie Forbin, Deputy Director General for the Copyright and Creative Industry Sector, expressing “frustration” and “bitterness” about the Committee’s slow pace of work, and ended with […]

WIPO GA Opening Statements Signal Debates Ahead

Sean Flynn and Talia Deady The World Intellectual Property Organization’s General Assembly finished the opening statements of Member States and is now moving toward its substantive work. This note includes quotes of some of the opening statements on key issues facing the General Assembly and in WIPO’s work head.  Support SCCR work on Broadcast and […]

WIPO Report on UDRP lacks structural separation and data, and throws aside clear free speech protections in the global domain name system

Kathryn Kleiman Twenty-five years ago, the then-new Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) adopted a virtual dispute policy for domain names as its first “consensus policy” and that policy is now due to be reviewed. A comment filed last week by PIJIP professors and fellows Christine Farley, Kathryn Kleiman and Patricia Aufderheide, together […]

Unfair Licensing Practices in the Library Sector

Teresa Nobre outlines a chilling range of practices by publishers to try to restrict the ability of researchers to conduct computational research. From ‘choice of law’ clauses which seek to circumvent EU law, to increased liability and penalties on libraries which fail to police their users. Nobre suggests a series of urgent measures to tip […]

Malaysia exhorts Human Rights Council to prioritize the primacy of public health and human rights over commercial interests

This post was originally published on KEI Online by Thiru Balasubramaniam On Tuesday afternoon, 24 June 2025, the Core Group (Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Senegal, South Africa, Thailand) convened an informal consultation to consider the revised version draft resolution, “Access to medicines, vaccines and other health products in the context of the right of everyone […]

Latest Developments on Training GenAI with Copyrighted Works and Some 'What Ifs?'

Luca Schirru ‘Boring’ is not a word that can be used to describe the past few days for those interested in litigation involving copyright issues in the development and use of Generative AI systems. Two major cases saw significant updates, issuing orders that addressed one of the main questions raised in these lawsuits: is the […]

WIPO General Assembly 66th: Navigating a Comprehensive Agenda with Constructive Dialogue

By Andres Izquierdo, Counsel, PIJIP, American University Despite the weight of a packed agenda and the significance of several recent treaty milestones, the Sixty-Sixth Series of Meetings of the WIPO General Assembly is expected to unfold key institutional decisions, including the initiation of the Director General appointment process, the adoption of procedural reforms under the […]

WIPO Budget Committee Concludes Without Agreement on Indigenous Participation Funding

By Andres Izquierdo, Counsel, PIJIP, American University At the close of WIPO’s 39th Program and Budget Committee (PBC) session, a modest yet symbolically significant proposal—to allocate regular budget funds, on an exceptional basis, to support the participation of Indigenous Peoples in sessions of the Intergovernmental Committee (IGC)—was withdrawn. Despite wide cross-regional support and a week […]

No Breakthroughs at WIPO: Budget Committee Defers Core Disputes

By: Andres Izquierdo, Counsel, PIJIP, American University Despite a full agenda and spirited debate, WIPO’s 39th Program and Budget Committee ended with little to show in terms of any concrete modifications to the proposed 2026/2027 Program and Budget. Key issues—including budget transparency, integration of development goals, Indigenous participation, language access, and technical assistance—remained unresolved or […]

Highlights from the Global Expert Network on Copyright User Rights Symposium 2025: Principles for Digital Copyright

Sean Flynn and Luca Schirru The Global Expert Network on Copyright User Rights Symposium public event took place from June 16-17, 2025, at the Geneva Graduate Institute. Organized by American University’s Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property (PIJIP) and South Centre, in partnership with the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and […]

Promoting AI for Good in the Global South – Highlights

by Ben Cashdan Across Africa and Latin America, researchers are using Artificial Intelligence to solve pressing problems: from addressing health challenges and increasing access to information for underserved communities, to preserving languages and culture. This wave of “AI for Good” in the Global South faces a major difficulty: how to access good quality training data, […]

WTO: Brazil, India and Peru call for the inclusion of a mandatory disclosure requirement in the WTO TRIPS Agreement

This post was originally published on KEI Online by Thiru On 18 March 2025, the World Trade Organization (WTO) published a communication (IP/C/W/719) by Brazil, India, and Peru entitled, “Revising discussions on the relationship between the TRIPS Agreement and Convention on Biological Diversity“. Brazil, India, and Peru have called for the inclusion of a mandatory disclosure requirement […]

Ensuring Indigenous Participation at WIPO: GRULAC Proposal at PBC/38

By Andres Izquierdo, Counsel, PIJIP, American University At the 38th session of WIPO’s Program and Budget Committee (PBC), the Delegation of Colombia, speaking on behalf of the Group of Latin American and Caribbean Countries (GRULAC), introduced a proposal to address the ongoing funding crisis that threatens the participation of Indigenous Peoples in WIPO’s norm-setting processes. […]

Fair Use Isn’t Optional: Judges Can Help Reclaim It for Creators

By Yuanxiao Xu. This post was originally published on Authors Alliance. “One need not be a copyright scholar to evaluate fair use. One need only understand the purpose of copyright. — Leval wins my heart forever” Brandon Butler’s drawing of Judge Leval. CC BY 4.0. If you have spent much time exploring U.S. copyright law, you’d likely have encountered […]

Malaysia-EFTA Economic Partnership Agreement (MEEPA) Would Tie Malaysia’s Hands on Access to Medicines

Brook K. Baker, Prof. Emeritus, Northeastern U. School of Law, Senior Policy Analyst, Health GAP The MEEPA is a tentatively concluded trade agreement between Malaysia and EFTA (the European Free Trade Association of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland) that may soon be signed by the Malaysian government. Malaysian negotiators have accepted intellectual property (IP) protections […]

WIPO-IGC 51st Sessions Breaks Jinx, Recommends Mandate Renewal

by Chidi Oguamanam* First Published by ABS Canada here. Republished on Infojustice with the permission of the author. Delegates to the World Intellectual Property Organization Special Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Traditional Cultural Expressions (WIPO-IGC) resumed and concluded their last deliberations for the 2024-2025 biennium on May 30-June 5. Most […]

The Great Flip: Can Opt-Outs be a Permitted Exception? Part II

Lokesh Vyas and Yogesh Badwal This post was originally published on Spicy IP. In the previous part, we examined whether the opt-out mechanism, as claimed in Gen-AI litigations, constitutes a prohibited formality for the “enjoyment and exercise” of authors’ rights under Article 5(2) of the Berne Convention. And we argued no. In this post, we address the second question: Can […]

The Great Flip: Is Opt Out a Prohibited Formality under the Berne Convention? Part I

Lokesh Vyas and Yogesh Badwal This post was originally published on Spicy IP. Bonjour, Lately, we’ve been cogitating on this curious concept called the “opt-out”, which has been cropping up with increasing frequency in generative AI litigation, including in India. The EU and the UK are taking the idea seriously and considering giving it statutory teeth. On the surface, it […]

US Proposes Limiting IGC Meetings and Mandate

Sean Flynn The United States delegation, in its opening statement to the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore, expressed its desire to limit the activities and mandate of the Committee. The US statement, made at the 51st meeting of the Committee, recalled that the last two […]