At the end of last month, hundreds of scholars, academics, and activists gathered in Washington, D.C. at the Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest. Emerging from three days of intense discussion and debate, the Washington Declaration expresses the participants' conclusions and calls for a path forward on ensuring that intellectual property law and policy reflects the interests of all.

Here at PK, we're reminded daily of the ways in which copyright and trademark can often run up against principles of free speech, privacy, due process, and even the artists and creators it's designed to benefit. But patents, trademarks, and other forms of IP can also, if misapplied, act to stifle vital research, reduce access to lifesaving medicines, or move educational opportunities out of reach.

Today, we filed two sets of comments with the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR). The first related to issues the USTR should consider in the context of signing the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) and the second related to the Special 301 review process. In both comments we suggest that the USTR should adopt a new approach as it engages with other countries on trade and intellectual property issues. This approach should view U.S. trade interests holistically, acknowledging that whole industries that contribute to U.S. trade rely on copyright limitations and exceptions and accounting for these interests.

Last week, the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR)—part of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a United Nations body, failed to make any progress toward increasing access to copyrighted works by the reading disabled. Though this is bad news, the issue is not over. There’s no reason why laws should prevent people who aren’t being served by the market from helping themselves by creating and sharing accessible works. But getting this message understood by a UN entity that operates by consensus is very hard. To understand why progress on helping the reading disabled has been so elusive, it helps to put WIPO into context—it’s an institution not renowned for speed.

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The Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement continues to roll along with negotiations taking place in Switzerland in the coming weeks. Rumor has it that these negotiations might be bringing us to a finalized ACTA soon, despite protests from public interest groups, technology companies, and legislators around the world that its ham-fisted approach to enforcement can do grave harm to consumers, innovation, communication, and can even make it harder for lifesaving medications to reach populations in need. It’s time to make sure that your voices are heard on this important issue. And we have two ways that you can do that. One is by signing a declaration of principles crafted by a coalition of experts assembled at American University. The other, more direct method is by writing to the President himself, using our action alert submission form.

U2 frontman and humanitarian Bono had a page-long op-ed in this past Sunday's New York Times, where he describes what he calls "10 ideas that might make the next 10 years more interesting, healthy or civil. Some are trivial, some fundamental. They have little in common with one another except that I am seized by each, and moved by its potential to change our world." So let's look at some issues that made the list.... a twist on cap and trade, fighting the rotavirus, new cancer research, the rise of Africa and... limiting the scourge of file sharing.

Yes, that's right, file sharing, clearly one from the "trivial" category. Bono blames Internet Service Providers for "this reverse Robin Hooding" which he says hurts "the young, fledgling songwriters who can't live off ticket and T-shirt sales...." His "big" idea for stopping the scourge?

Access to information is a fundamental human right. It allows individuals to effectively participate in social, political, and cultural life. Many international treaties oblige countries to secure this right for all individuals including those with disabilities. However, as I noted in my previous post, many national copyright laws, including US copyright law, place limitations on access to information by the blind. A move to address this issue is underway at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which may consider an international treaty that would require countries to remove certain copyright restrictions that prevent access. The Copyright Office, which is part of the U.S. delegation to WIPO, had invited public comments on this issue. The comments filed with the Copyright Office are available here.