December 26, 2022
Nothing shines a brighter light on the harmful effects of bad intellectual property law than an ongoing pandemic. CEPR’s researchers continue to advocate for reform of this broken system which causes so much damage here in the US and abroad.
This year saw some success from the long campaign to waive COVID vaccine patents for developing countries. This June the WTO finally approved a waiver on the vaccine’s patent protections, almost a year after the approval of the first vaccine. However, as Director of International Programs Deborah James wrote, there is still much more work to be done to undo the harm caused by overreaching intellectual property agreements.
Dean Baker continued to be a leading voice advocating for intellectual property reform. Dean partnered with the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) to produce a series of videos discussing pressing economic issues. His episode, “ How to Unf★ck Intellectual Property ” discusses the problems with our current patent system, and how it could be improved . In October CEPR hosted a screening of the episode, followed by a discussion with Dean. He also kept the press honest , pointing out the backwards narratives and policies that continue to enrich the elite at the expense of everyone else .
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