INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PROTECTION AND DRUG PATENTS IN BRAZIL

The article aims to reconstruct the central events of the Intellectual Property (IP) protection system in Brazil, from the first colonial orders to the Intellectual Property Law (1996). Two periods are identified: in the first, we observe the internalizing of innovations, improving the country's development, but preventing the patenting of medicines and food. The second, recent, explains an adaptation of national laws to international ones, suppressing the previous exceptions. The historical change in regulations reveals that patents have become symbolic elements of globalization process. The geopolitics of this process is presented in a review on the influence of the US Special 301 Reports on Brazilian politics. Finally, the article seeks to show that politics is not limited to the legal system, presenting the annulment of patents in Brazil during public health crises. In this sense, the text brings elements of the international discussion on the suppression of patents to face the COVID-19 pandemic, updating the debate on territorial sovereignty.

Pirate-states: Imagining the geography of media piracy

Intellectual property (IP) history has long pointed to certain nations as sources of copyright infringement, but these linkages are now systematically produced through annual Special 301 reporting by the US government and media industries. Exploring connections between infringement and nation, this article poses three concepts. Anti-piracy discourse produces a pirate repertoire, a stock of familiar transgressive figures deployed in efforts to combat piracy. These include the pirate-state, a figure used to name and shame nations as hotspots for IP infringement. Cumulatively, pirate-states form a broader geography of media piracy, mapping the world in terms of hubs for unauthorized flows of cultural content. This article views the Special 301 as a representational mechanism for creating a centre–periphery vision imagining ‘the West’ and its infringing others. Although 301 reporting can therefore be read as a statement of discursive power, the article argues this influence remains circumscribed, as is shown by the case of Ukraine.

Obstáculos a las flexibilidades del derecho de patentes: un acercamiento desde el derecho internacional y una primera mirada a los mecanismos unilaterales

Desde que surgieron las flexibilidades a los derechos de patentes en el ámbito de la Organización Mundial del Comercio (OMC) y estos se replicaron en varias legislaciones locales y en tratados bilaterales, los principales actores y productores de Investigación y Desarrollo (R&D, por sus siglas en inglés) han buscado la manera de impedir que estas medidas sean utilizadas o de anular por completo su uso introduciendo regulaciones tendientes a aumentar los niveles de protección del derecho de patentes y en casos específicos impedir directamente la utilización de las flexibilidades. Los impedimentos diseñados pueden encontrarse tanto a nivel internacional (ADIPC-Plus) como a nivel local (Special 301), por lo que el presente trabajo busca presentar una breve aproximación a cada uno y constatar si tienen un impacto en el uso de las flexibilidades.