Trademarks as Fictitious Commodities: An Erosion of the Public Interest? An Assessment of the use of trademarks over urban space at the example of London’s Regent Street and Paris’ Champs-Elysées

With reference to Karl Polyani’s notion of fictitious commodities we evaluate whether the protection of two worldwide known streets, namely ‘Regent Street’ in London and the ‘Champs- Elysées’ in Paris may be perceived as an erosion of the public interest and thus call for potential policy reformulation or reforms to substantive trademark law. The reasons for this choice are twofold: Firstly, the existing body of literature offers an in-depth discussion on the complex dynamics between the public interest and patents and copyrights, yet relatively little has been said so far on the correlation of the public interest and trademarks. Secondly, trademark protection over urban space is a recent phenomenon that has in and by itself not yet been properly grasped, neither from a policy, commercial or legal perspective. We conclude that the ownership structure of each of these two trademarks suggests that, contrary to intuition, it is the use of trademark protection rather than the renouncement from trademark protection that guarantees, at least in these two instances, the public interest. We contend however that the increased use of trademark protection over urban space does bear the potential for the erosion of the public interest and call upon policy makers to formulate guidelines in that respect.Fictitious Commodities, Public Interest, Trademarks, Urban Space, International Economic Integration, Global Competitiveness, Branding Street names, Double Movement Fictitious Commodities, Public Interest, Trademarks, Urban Space, International Economic Integration, Global Competitiveness, Branding Street names, Double Movement Fictitious Commodities, Public Interest, Trademarks, Urban Space, International Economic Integration, Global Competitiveness, Branding Street names, Double Movement

Moving from outsider to insider status through metrics: the inclusion of “neglected tropical diseases” into the sustainable development goals

“Neglected Tropical Diseases” (NTDs) are lesser-known diseases, existing in the poorest communities in the shadow of the high-profile and well-funded “Big Three” (HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria). Blame for neglect is pointed towards protagonists, which include pharmaceutical companies, for not investing in diseases of poverty and donor governments and NGOs, for directing attention to high mortality diseases. Yet, other sites of neglect tend to be ignored, such as global governance priorities. Exclusion of NTDs from the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) in 2000 started the ball rolling for an advocacy campaign to raise these diseases higher up the global health agenda. The MDG omission was used as a frame by advocates to highlight neglect and led to inclusion in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs, set out in 2015, now include NTDs alongside HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, hepatitis, water-borne diseases and other communicable diseases in a goal to end epidemics by 2030. However, reframing based on a concept of neglect was not sufficient to ensure a place at the top of global health priorities. The NTD problem also needed to be made measurable, with metrics set in evidence-based logic, to provide a rationale for intervention and track progress towards quantifiable success

Exploring the meaning of pro-vaccine activism across two countries

While vaccine-critical activism has been widely documented and discussed, comparatively little has been said about the concerted response of pro-vaccine activists defending the majority view. This paper explores two case studies of pro-vaccine activism in Australia and the United States (US). It shows how pro-vaccine views and behaviours can take varying forms due to different aims and methods of engagement – oppositional counteractivities in favour of vaccination in Australia, and issue-based advocacy as part of a political alliance in the US. The focus in Australia comes from a pro-science stance and includes ‘skeptics’ against pseudoscience directly opposing vaccine-critical groups. In the US, the focus takes the form of an issue-specific campaign that has arisen from existing pro-vaccine parent blogs and discussion groups pushing for policy change rather than public confrontation. These case studies exemplify how pro-vaccine activism can take varying forms of either reinforcing the mainstream view or countering digression from it. Drawing on qualitative research, this paper aims to examine the types of practices and strategies employed by activists to voice their support of vaccination, and discusses the means, messages, and motivations of pro-vaccine activism. It ends with an argument for why a study – of public support for in addition to studying public opposition to vaccination – can help to better understand vaccination views and behaviours. These findings have wider implications for the study of counter-activism and the polarisation of civil society groups

Representation of ethnic and racial minority groups in European vaccine trials: a quantitative analysis of clinical trials registries

ObjectivesThe representation of ethnic minority groups in European vaccine trials is an important and hitherto unaddressed gap in the literature. The objectives of this study were to determine the proportion of European vaccine trials that report data on the ethnic demographics of participants, to evaluate the distribution of ethnic minority groups among trial participants (where reported), and ascertain whether this is representative of the wider population of the country.DesignWe evaluated the representation of ethnic/racial minority groups in clinical research, conducting a quantitative analysis of clinical trials registry data from completed vaccine trials in Europe that commenced between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2020.Data sourcesData were collected from four major clinical trial databases: ClinicalTrials.gov, the European Union Clinical Trials Register (EUCTR), the International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number (ISRCTN) and the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP).ResultsA majority of clinical trials failed to either record or report the race/ethnicity of their volunteers on the clinical trials registry databases. Reported participants in UK vaccine trials were not representative of the ethnic demographics of the wider population. Unavailability of population-level ethnicity data for many European countries was a significant barrier to determining the wider applicability of these findings.ConclusionsUnder-representation of ethnic minority groups in vaccine trials may have implications for the effectiveness of routine vaccinations, threatening the principles of justice and equity that are embedded in national medical research guidelines. Unavailability of population-level ethnicity data exacerbates the prevailing lack of understanding of the extent of this issue, despite literature indicating cause for concern

WHO pandemic agreement

UK must step up its preparedness plan

Effective altruism, technoscience and the making of philanthropic value

A recent philanthropic movement with advocates among high-profile tech entrepreneurs and philosophers, effective altruism (EA) has been widely disparaged for its flawed moral philosophy and conservative political implications. As philanthropic practice, however, it has been seldom studied. In this paper, we argue that claims to technoscientific expertise are central to how EA actors understand, legitimize, and take part in the production of philanthropic value. We analyze their practices of categorization, ranking and measurement as well as underlying technoscientific imaginaries and moral views through comparing three areas of EA intervention: neglected tropical diseases, cultured meat, and AI safety. We show how EA involves various and contested ambitions to direct knowledge production and redraw the boundaries of expert communities, shedding light on the centrality of technoscience in philanthropists’ worldmaking ambitions.</p

Neglect in policy problems: the case of 'neglected tropical diseases'

This thesis is concerned with how previously neglected issues, in this instance tropical diseases, gain prominence on policy agendas, and shows how advocacy and measurement are used to bring issues to the attention of policymakers. The term 'neglected tropical diseases' (NTDs) was coined in the early 2000s to describe lesser-known diseases that existed in the shadow of the high-profile and well-funded “big three” – HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), and malaria. The case of NTDs demonstrates how a policy problem can be understood amidst connections being drawn or not drawn between issues, and the forms of intervention taken to address neglect in policy. Thus, the central question of this thesis is: How did a re-labeled disease category within a decade result in billions of funding being directed towards a previously 'neglected' issue, with global commitments for control, elimination, and eradication? The analysis is presented in two parts and shows how NTDs have gained acknowledgement and care through the concept of neglect. The first part involves the conceptualization of common characteristics and methods of standardizing a disease grouping, which is far from a straightforward process as various lists of NTDs attest. The second part, through a sociohistorical analysis of the origins and policy development of NTDs, demonstrates how policy appeal is created through the use of both advocacy and measurement, more usually treated as distinct areas within global health policy. It draws on interviews with 55 actors from scientists, to policy officials, NGO workers, and academics, and also undertakes a documentary analysis, which includes historical sources. Using theoretical perspectives from Science and Technology Studies, Public Policy, and Political Economy, this thesis demonstrates what the concept of neglect brings to understanding policy problems. It concludes that both the perception and responses to neglect in policy can be understood in four distinct and overlapping ways, through: information, action, feeling and thought

Violence and under-reporting: Learning disability nursing and the impact of environment, experience and banding

This is the authors' version of an article published in the Journal of Clinical Nursing. The definitive version is available at www3.interscience.wiley.comThe study explores the implications of a survey into the discrepancy between actual and reported incidents of violence, perpetrated by service users, within the learning disability division of one mental health NHS Trust. Violence within the NHS continues to constitute a significant issue, especially within mental health and learning disability services where incidence remains disproportionately high despite the context of zero tolerance. A whole-population survey of 411 nurses working within a variety of settings within the learning disability division of one mental health NHS Trust. A questionnaire was administered to learning disability nursing staff working in community, respite, residential, assessment and treatment and medium secure settings, yielding a response rate of approximately 40%. There were distinct differences in the levels of violence reported within specific specialist services along with variation between these areas according to clinical environment, years of experience and nursing band. The study does not support previous findings whereby unqualified nurses experienced more incidents of violence than qualified nurses. The situation was less clear, complicated by the interrelationship between years of nursing experience, nursing band and clinical environment. The conclusions suggest that the increased emphasis on reducing violent incidents has been fairly successful with staff reporting adequate preparation for responding to specific incidents and being well supported by colleagues, managers and the organisation. The differences between specific clinical environments, however, constituted a worrying finding with implications for skill mix and staff education. The study raises questions about the relationship between the qualified nurse and the individual with a learning disability in the context of violence and according to specific circumstances of care delivery. The relationship is clearly not a simple one, and this group of nurses’ understanding and expectations of tolerance requires further research; violence is clearly never acceptable, but these nurses appear reluctant to condemn and attribute culpability