James Love (NGO director)

Last updated
Jamie Love
James Love Kenen immateriaalioikeus.jpg
Love in Finland, 2009
Born
James Packard Love

1949or1950(age 73–74) [1]
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater Harvard Kennedy School
Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs
Occupation(s)Director, Knowledge Ecology International
SpouseManon Ress
Children4 [2] [3]

James Packard Love (born 1950) is the director of Knowledge Ecology International, formerly known as the Consumer Project on Technology, a non-governmental organization with offices in Washington, D.C., and Geneva, that works mainly on matters concerning knowledge management and governance, including intellectual property policy and practice and innovation policy, particularly as they relate to health care and access to knowledge.

Contents

An adviser to a number of United Nations agencies, national governments, international and regional intergovernmental organizations and public health NGOs, Love is US co-chair of the Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue Working Group on Intellectual Property, founder and chairman of Essential Inventions, Chairman of the Union for the Public Domain, Chairman of the Civil Society Coalition, and in the past has been a member of the MSF working groups on Intellectual Property and Research and Development, the Adelphi Charter on Creativity, Innovation and Intellectual Property and the Initiative for Policy Dialogue Task Force on Intellectual Property.

Education and early career

Love was born in 1950 [4] and grew up in Bellevue, Washington. After finishing high school, Love lived and worked in Alaska for 13 years, initially as a fish cannery worker. In 1974, he founded a non-profit organization, the Alaska Public Interest Group, campaigning for oil companies to give part of their revenues to the community. [3] (This effort eventually led to the establishment of the Alaska Permanent Fund.)

In 1980, Love left Alaska to return to school. He received a Masters of Public Administration from Harvard Kennedy School and a Masters in Public Affairs from the Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. [5] He was then employed as an economist at the Frank Russell Company. He developed a return attribution system for the DEC pension fund, a portfolio reporting system for the IBM pension fund, and worked with the Ford Foundation to evaluate social investing by state investment funds.

Public interest career

From 1990 to 2006, Love worked for Ralph Nader's Center for Study of Responsive Law, where among other things, he led an early effort to expand public access to U.S. government funded databases. One element of this involved the "Crown Jewels Campaign," which targeted public access to the most important and valuable federal databases, including those involving United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings, patents, bills pending before the Congress, medical abstracts and court opinions and statutes. In 1996, Love worked with Richard Stallman to create the Union for the Public Domain, which focused its attention on defeating a proposal at a WIPO diplomatic conference to adopt a treaty for the protection of non-copyrighted elements of databases.

In 1997, Love worked with Ralph Nader to push the U.S. Department of Justice to bring an antitrust case against Microsoft for anti-competitive conduct relating to web browsers and other software products running on Windows. Nader and Love later asked several computer manufacturers to offer consumers the choice of Linux or other operating systems, and pressed OMB to consider using its procurement power to require Microsoft and others to use open data formats. [6]

In 1999, Love and several AIDS activists and public health group such as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Health Action International (HAI) and Act Up launched a global campaign to promote the compulsory licensing of patents on medicines for AIDS and other illnesses.

In 2001, Love negotiated with Yusuf Hamied, head of Cipla, a leading Indian generic drug manufacturer, a $1 per day price for the AIDS treatment regime NVP+D4T+3TC. [7] The "Cipla Offer" made headlines around the world and motivated Kofi Annan and others to call for the creation of the Global Fund for HIV, TB and malaria. The negotiations over the $1 per day AIDS drug price were the subject of a documentary film about access to AIDS drugs, Fire in the Blood. In November 2001, a Wall Street Journal editorial singled out the Consumer Project on Technology for pushing the World Trade Organization to adopt the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health.

In 2002, at the Barcelona International AIDS conference, Love called for the creation of a patent pool for patents on HIV and other essential medicines. In the fall of 2002, Tim Hubbard and Love participated in a radical scenario planning exercise organized by Aventis, the pharmaceutical and life sciences company, and developed proposals to eliminate legal monopolies on new medicines, and to expand support for open science projects. Among the Radical Pharma Scenario proposals were to replace intellectual property obligations in the WTO TRIPS accord and trade agreements with multilateral agreements on funding medical R&D, and to reform the incentive systems by replacing patent monopolies with cash prizes. In 2005, Representative Bernie Sanders introduced the first of several "Medical Innovation Prize Fund" bills designed to eliminate drug monopolies, one of the reforms coming out of the 2002 Aventis scenario sessions. [8] The 2005 prize fund bill, which was drafted in 2004, would have created a large fund, set at 50 basis points of US GDP, to reward developers of new drugs, on the basis of "the incremental therapeutic benefit" of a product, benchmarked against existing therapies, subject to set asides in the fund for orphan drugs and national and global public health priorities. [9] Love and Hubbard also proposed systems of "competitive intermediaries" to manage funding for open science projects. Working with artists and activists such as Ted Byfield, Alan Toner, and Jamie King, Love proposed the Blur/Banff model for supporting artists who recorded music.

In 2003, Love encouraged colleagues to consider the reform of WIPO, the UN specialized agency for intellectual property. In 2004, working with the TransAtlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD), Love organized a meeting on access to knowledge for essential learning tools and on the future of WIPO. During this period, Love coined the term a2k, as a community brand for the Access for Knowledge movement that had been built out of the WIPO reform efforts.

Also in 2003, Love worked with several developing country governments, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Zambia and Mozambique on the granting of compulsory licenses on patents for antimalarial drugs. In 2003, the South Africa Competition Commission hired Love and the Consumer Project on Technology to evaluate a compulsory licensing request by Hazel Tau and the South Africa Treatment Access Campaign (TAC). The Competition Commission staff found that GSK and Boehringer were in violation of three sections of South Africa competition laws, leading to licenses on patents for several suppliers of generic AIDS drugs.

In 2004 and 2005, Love worked with Tim Hubbard and others on two separate initiatives to propose new treaty paradigms for intellectual property and innovation. [10] The first was a proposal for a global treaty on medical research and development that would replace blinding norms on patents and other intellectual property rights for medicines. The second was a comprehensive access to knowledge treaty.

In 2005, Love authored a World Health Organization (WHO) and UNDP joint publication titled "Remuneration Guidelines for Non-Voluntary Use of a Patent". The 2005 Remuneration Guidelines introduced the Tiered Royalty Method (TRM), an approach that takes into account differences in incomes between countries, and sets royalties independent of the generic price of product.

In 2007, during discussions with MSF on a possible large prize for the development of a new low cost point of care diagnostic tool for tuberculosis, Love proposed an "open source dividend" mechanism to provide financial incentives to open source research. The open source dividend proposal would later be incorporated into other innovation inducement prize fund proposals. [11]

In 2008, Love and KEI worked with the World Blind Union to convene a meeting to draft a possible treaty on copyright limitations and exceptions for persons who are blind, visually impaired or have other disabilities. (The treaty proposal was formerly tabled by the World Intellectual Property Organization in 2009.) A diplomatic conference led to the negotiation of the Marrakesh VIP Treaty in June 2013, now in global effect, having been ratified by over 50 countries including India (first to ratify), all of the European Union and the United States. Love's contribution to the treaty effort was recognized by the Electronic Frontier Foundation with their EFF Pioneer Award.

In 2012, a panel of the WHO recommended governments begin negotiation on a global treaty on medical R&D, incorporating such principals as the de-linkage of R&D costs from drug prices. The proposal was seen by some as a building block to the broader visions of reform set out in the 2002 Aventis scenario sessions. In 2012, Love gave evidence in a compulsory licensing proceeding in India involving patents held by Bayer on the cancer drug sorafenib (brand name Nexavar). The Nexavar case was the first compulsory license on a patent granted by India, following India's decision to join the World Trade Organization. [12]

Media

James Love's critical role in the battle for access to antiretroviral treatment in Africa and other parts of the global south is portrayed in the award-winning documentary Fire in the Blood (2013 film). [4]

Personal life

Love is married to fellow activist Manon Ress, and they have children from previous marriages and two children together. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intellectual property</span> Ownership of creative expressions and processes

Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets. The modern concept of intellectual property developed in England in the 17th and 18th centuries. The term "intellectual property" began to be used in the 19th century, though it was not until the late 20th century that intellectual property became commonplace in most of the world's legal systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">World Intellectual Property Organization</span> Specialised agency of the United Nations

The World Intellectual Property Organization is one of the 15 specialized agencies of the United Nations (UN). Pursuant to the 1967 Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization, WIPO was created to promote and protect intellectual property (IP) across the world by cooperating with countries as well as international organizations. It began operations on 26 April 1970 when the convention entered into force. The current Director General is Singaporean Daren Tang, former head of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore, who began his term on 1 October 2020.

Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) is a non-governmental organization. It was founded by Ralph Nader in 1995 and was then called Consumer Project on Technology. It deals with issues related to the effects of intellectual property on public health, cyberlaw and e-commerce, and competition policy. It has fought the Microsoft monopoly, the ICANN monopoly, software patents, and business method patents. It has supported free software in government, open access for the Internet, and privacy regulation. KEI works on access to medicines, including a major effort on compulsory licensing of patents. Beginning in 2002, CPTech began to work with Tim Hubbard and others on a new trade framework for medical research and development (R&D). In the context of current bilateral agreements, this is referred to as R&D+, which in contrast to TRIPS+ approaches.

Technology transfer (TT), also called transfer of technology (TOT), is the process of transferring (disseminating) technology from the person or organization that owns or holds it to another person or organization, in an attempt to transform inventions and scientific outcomes into new products and services that benefit society. Technology transfer is closely related to knowledge transfer.

A compulsory license provides that the owner of a patent or copyright licenses the use of their rights against payment either set by law or determined through some form of adjudication or arbitration. In essence, under a compulsory license, an individual or company seeking to use another's intellectual property can do so without seeking the rights holder's consent, and pays the rights holder a set fee for the license. This is an exception to the general rule under intellectual property laws that the intellectual property owner enjoys exclusive rights that it may license—or decline to license—to others.

The Access to Knowledge (A2K) movement is a loose collection of civil society groups, governments, and individuals converging on the idea that access to knowledge should be linked to fundamental principles of justice, freedom, and economic development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Utility model</span> Patent-like intellectual property right

A utility model is a patent-like intellectual property right to protect inventions. This type of right is available in many countries but, notably, not in the United States, United Kingdom or Canada. Although a utility model is similar to a patent, it is generally cheaper to obtain and maintain, has a shorter term, shorter grant lag, and less stringent patentability requirements. In some countries, it is only available for inventions in certain fields of technology and/or only for products. Utility models can be described as second-class patents.

Legal scholars, economists, activists, policymakers, industries, and trade organizations have held differing views on patents and engaged in contentious debates on the subject. Critical perspectives emerged in the nineteenth century that were especially based on the principles of free trade. Contemporary criticisms have echoed those arguments, claiming that patents block innovation and waste resources that could otherwise be used productively, and also block access to an increasingly important "commons" of enabling technologies, apply a "one size fits all" model to industries with differing needs, that is especially unproductive for industries other than chemicals and pharmaceuticals and especially unproductive for the software industry. Enforcement by patent trolls of poor quality patents has led to criticism of the patent office as well as the system itself. Patents on pharmaceuticals have also been a particular focus of criticism, as the high prices they enable puts life-saving drugs out of reach of many people. Alternatives to patents have been proposed, such Joseph Stiglitz's suggestion of providing "prize money" as a substitute for the lost profits associated with abstaining from the monopoly given by a patent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TRIPS Agreement</span> International treaty on intellectual property protections

The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is an international legal agreement between all the member nations of the World Trade Organization (WTO). It establishes minimum standards for the regulation by national governments of different forms of intellectual property (IP) as applied to nationals of other WTO member nations. TRIPS was negotiated at the end of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) between 1989 and 1990 and is administered by the WTO.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Limitations and exceptions to copyright</span> Provisions which allow for copyrighted works to be used without a license from the copyright owner

Limitations and exceptions to copyright are provisions, in local copyright law or the Berne Convention, which allow for copyrighted works to be used without a license from the copyright owner.

The Health Impact Fund is a proposed pay-for-performance mechanism that would provide a market-based solution to problems concerning the development and distribution of medicines globally. It would incentivize the research and development of new pharmaceutical products that make substantial reductions in the global burden of disease. The Health Impact Fund is the creation of a team of researchers led by the Yale philosopher Thomas Pogge and the University of Calgary economist Aidan Hollis, and is promoted by the non-profit organization Incentives for Global Health (IGH).

Some authors advocating patent reform have proposed the use of prizes as an alternative to patents. Critics of the current patent system, such as Joseph E. Stiglitz, say that patents fail to provide incentives for innovations which are not commercially marketable. Stiglitz provides the idea of prizes instead of patents to be awarded in order to further advance solutions to global problems such as AIDS.

The cost of HIV treatment is a complicated issue with an extremely wide range of costs due to varying factors such as the type of antiretroviral therapy and the country in which the treatment is administered. The first line therapy of HIV, or the initial antiretroviral drug regimen for an HIV-infected patient, is generally cheaper than subsequent second-line or third-line therapies. There is also a great variability of drug prices among low, middle, and high income countries. In general, low-income countries have the lowest cost of antiretroviral therapy, while middle- and high-income tend to have considerably higher costs. Certain prices of HIV drugs may be high and difficult to afford due to patent barriers on antiretroviral drugs and slow regulatory approval for drugs, which may lead to indirect consequences such as greater HIV drug resistance and an increased number of opportunistic infections. Government and activist movements have taken efforts to limit the price of HIV drugs.

A biological patent is a patent on an invention in the field of biology that by law allows the patent holder to exclude others from making, using, selling, or importing the protected invention for a limited period of time. The scope and reach of biological patents vary among jurisdictions, and may include biological technology and products, genetically modified organisms and genetic material. The applicability of patents to substances and processes wholly or partially natural in origin is a subject of debate.

The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) is a Unitaid-backed international organisation founded in July 2010, based in Geneva, Switzerland. Its public health driven business model aims to lower the prices of HIV, tuberculosis and hepatitis C medicines and facilitate the development of better-adapted HIV treatments through voluntary licensing and patent pooling. Its goal is to improve access to affordable and appropriate HIV, hepatitis C and tuberculosis medicines in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). In May 2020, the MPP become an implementing partner of the WHO's Covid-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP).

Republic Act No. 8293, otherwise known as The Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines lays down the rules and regulations that grant, and enforce patents in the Philippines. Patents may be granted to technical solutions such as an inventions, machines, devices, processes, or an improvement of any of the foregoing. The technical solution must be novel, innovative, and industrially useful. In order for a technical solution to be granted a patent, the inventor must file an application to the Bureau of Patents, which will examine, and in some cases, grant its approval. The law is designed as to foster domestic creativity, to attract foreign investors, and to motivate inventors to release their products for public access.

Access to medicines refers to the reasonable ability for people to get needed medicines required to achieve health. Such access is deemed to be part of the right to health as supported by international law since 1946.

At its essence, intellectual property rights are described as “a legal framework for contractual agreements concerning technologies, which encourage the institution of ‘markets for technology’, making easier the international transfer of technology and its diffusion at the local level.” The discussion that has taken place, concerning intellectual property rights and the following agreements, centers around spreading global knowledge and technologies. Intellectual property has been largely discussed and gone through a series of changes. At the globalized level, a global network for ideas led institutions to put policies in place and key players to form opposing viewpoints. Beyond intellectual property, alternative sources for innovation include forming partnerships and moving business activities abroad.

The TRIPS Agreement waiver is a joint intervention communication by South Africa and India to the TRIPS council of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on 2 October 2020.

The Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore is in charge of negotiating one or several international legal instruments (treaty) to protect traditional knowledge, traditional cultural expressions, and genetic resources in relation with intellectual property, thus bridging existing gaps in international law. The IGC is convened in Geneva by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and has been meeting regularly since 2001.

References

  1. ↑ "How Drug Companies Keep Medicine Out of Reach". The Atlantic. 15 May 2013. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  2. ↑ "The Debate Over Internet Governance: Jamie Love". cyber.harvard.edu.
  3. 1 2 3 Boseley, Sarah (26 January 2016). "Big Pharma's worst nightmare - Sarah Boseley". The Guardian– via www.theguardian.com.
  4. 1 2 "The Contributors". Fire in the Blood. 2013-01-20. Archived from the original on 2018-10-17. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  5. ↑ "James Love". www.wipo.int.
  6. ↑ "CNN - Ralph Nader to feds: Stop Microsoft - November 11, 1998". www.cnn.com.
  7. ↑ Löfgren, Hans (6 July 2017). The Politics of the Pharmaceutical Industry and Access to Medicines: World Pharmacy and India. Routledge. ISBN   9781351470599 – via Google Books.
  8. ↑ Klein, Ezra (25 September 2015). "What happened to Bernie Sanders's best idea?". Vox.
  9. ↑ Pogge, Thomas; Rimmer, Matthew; Rubenstein, Kim (24 June 2010). Incentives for Global Public Health: Patent Law and Access to Essential Medicines. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   9781139487771 – via Google Books.
  10. ↑ Hubbard, Tim; Love, James (4 March 2004). "Tim Hubbard and James Love: We're patently going mad". TheGuardian UK.
  11. ↑ "The Prize Fund Model: Interview with KEI's James Love". Médecins Sans Frontières Access Campaign.
  12. ↑ "If Biden runs for president, he'll need to reboot his record on drug prices". STAT. 30 November 2017. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
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