TACD IP Policy Committee

Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD) Conference
Patents, Copyrights and Knowledge Governance: The Next Four Years

January 12-13, 2009

Venue: The Carnegie Institution, 1530 P Street, NW, Washington, DC

About the speakers / their policy recommendations

List of participants

Pictures

Some presentations are available here.

As a new Administration will take office in Washington, and the European Union renews its institutions, what should the political agenda be for intellectual property?

The globalisation of the challenges faced by consumers and rights holders have made intellectual property policy one of the main features of global trade policy, and stimulated both international and domestic debates about how best to promote innovation and access to knowledge, including “knowledge embedded” goods such as medicine, software, agriculture, inventions that address climate change, scholarly research, databases, films or recorded music.

Both the United States and the European Union are facing demands to modify policies on patents, copyrights and other forms of intellectual property protection, coming from different perspectives. There are high profile right-owner lobbying efforts directed at higher standards and tougher enforcement of intellectual property rights, and growing interest among consumer groups, academics and many innovative businesses to protect the public domain and retain or even expand user rights. There is also much interest in exploring newer approaches to the support of creative and inventive communities, that do not rely on notions of exclusive rights.

With the organisation of this event, the TransAtlantic Consumer Dialogue calls for two days of discussion on the assessment and on the prospective of the American and European political and policy Agenda on intellectual property practices and policies.

Program

Monday, January 12

08:45 – Registration and welcome coffee

09:00 – Opening remarks: Jill Johnstone, Consumer Focus (UK); James Love, KEI (US)

09:30 – Panel 1 – Setting the Stage
Chair: Jill Johnstone, Consumer Focus
Guilherme de Aguiar Patriota, Government of Brazil
Professor Arti Rai, Duke
Prof. Hugh Hansen, Fordham
Sisule Musungu, IQ Sensato

Panel 2 – Openness
Chair: Claudia Juech, Rockefeller Foundation
Konstantinos Karachalios, European Patent Office (presentation)
Dr Tim Hubbard, Sanger Institute, Welcome Trust
Heather Joseph, Association of Research Libraries

12:45 – Lunch

14:00 – Panel 3 – Patents and Innovation
Chair: Vera Franz, OSI
Prof. Joseph Stiglitz, Columbia. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, 2001
Prof. Eric Maskin, Institute for Advanced Studies. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, 2007

Panel 4 – Copyright Policy
Chair: Gigi Sohn, Public Knowledge
Maria Pallante, Associate Register for Policy and International affairs, Library of Congress
Prof. Bernt Hugenholtz, Institute for Information Law of the University of Amsterdam (IViR)
William Patry, Google
Fred von Lohmann, EFF
Prof. Michael Geist, University of Ottawa

18:00 - Reception

Tuesday, January 13

09:00 – Panel 5 – Patent Reform
Chair: Gene Kimmelman, Consumers Union
Prof. Josh Lerner, HBS, Harvard (presentation)
Dan Ravicher, Public Patent Foundation, Cardozo School of Law
Philippe Aigrain, CEO, Sopinspace (presentation)

Panel 6 – Innovation Inducement Prizes
Chair: Ed Mierzwinski, PIRG
James Love, KEI (presentation)
Steve Merrill, NAS
Michelle Childs, MSF

Panel 7 – Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights
Chair: Sherwin Siy, PK
Prof. Susan Sell, GWU
Eddan Katz, EFF
Paul Levy, Public Citizen
Associate Prof. Christophe Geiger, CEIPI (Strasbourg)/ Max Planck Institute for IP (Munich)

13:00 Lunch

14:00 – Panel 8 – Innovation, Creativity and Access to Knowledge: Software and The Internet
Chair: Mark Rotenberg, EPIC
Bruce Perens
Nicole Allen, PIRG
Richard Wilder, Microsoft
Anne-Catherine Lorrain, TACD

Panel 9 – Innovation and Access for Medical Technologies
Chair: Rohit Malpani, Oxfam
Rob Weissman, Essential Action (presentation)
Judit Rius, KEI (presentation)
Ellen ‘t Hoen, University of Amsterdam, UNITAID (presentation)
Sophie Bloemen, Health Action International
Prof. Anthony So, Duke

18:00 End of conference

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Sunday January 11th, 2009, 2 pm:

Side-meeting on the “Paris Accord” at KEI Offices (1621 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 500, Washington, DC 20009).

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