QUT News, 22 February 2024 22nd February 2024 The role of intellectual property rights in technology transfer to developing countries and least developed countries to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is a major theme of a new international…
[Christophe Geiger] Abstract: This chapter critically analyses the inclusion of intellectual property (IP) in the investment chapters of free trade agreements and bilateral investment treaties as well as their submission to their related investor state dispute settlement (ISDS). It argues that these developments pose a serious threat to a balanced and ethical innovation system. In part this is because when regulating IP to foster non-economic interests, the possibility of ISDS creates uncertainty about the ability of states to protect human rights and matters of public interest by limiting IP rights, even when such action is perfectly legitimated by the international IP system and its flexibilities.
[Letter endorsed by 208 Civil Society groups] We write to you as representatives of health organisations, patient groups, civil society and community organisations from across the globe to raise concerns over the negotiations between the UK and India on an ongoing free trade agreement. The leaked text of a chapter on Intellectual Property (IP) presents serious challenges to access to pharmaceutical products globally. While we recognise that the leaked text may not reflect the current state of demands from the UK on this topic, the lack of transparency leaves us without assurances that all damaging provisions will be removed from the list of demands your team is putting forward.
[Joint statement endorsed by 11 Kenyan Civil Society Organizations] This statement is in reference to the Statement on the Kenya – United States First Round of the Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership Talks... without endorsing the negotiations, we would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Ministry for ensuring that intellectual property is not one of the identified areas of negotiation. We would like to urge the Ministry to ensure that this position is maintained throughout these negotiations.
[South Centre] Developing countries should consider options that can be implemented now to deal with IP barriers to expand production and access to COVID-19 therapeutics and diagnostics, while the so far elusive decision on whether to extend a TRIPS waiver to cover these products is taken by WTO.
[Melissa Omino and Joanna Kahumbu] The cusp of the twentieth anniversary of the WTO Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health (hereafter “the Declaration”) was marked by a global pandemic. The Declaration and its iteration in the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (hereafter “TRIPS”) Article 31 bis, should have helped to contain the devastation in least developed and developing countries. The reality is that the pandemic is still ongoing, and the Global South led by South Africa and India are seeking a waiver of provisions to the TRIPS Agreement to ensure that COVID-19 therapeutics, diagnostics, and vaccines reach their citizens in order to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
[Shirin Syed] The draft of the UK-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA) chapter on intellectual property, leaked on October 31, reveals that there are several TRIPS-plus provisions which will devastate the global supply of generic medicines. The FTA contains harmful IP provision such as diluting the patentability standards, overriding section 3(d) of the Indian Patents Act and eliminating pre-grant opposition. If implemented, these provisions would pose a serious threat to the accessibility and affordability of medicines in India and globally.
[Nanditta Batra] Abstract: ... Notwithstanding the effect of patents on access to medicines, Article 27 of the TRIPS Agreement ordained patents for inventions “in all fields of technology”. While the genie was out of the bottle in the form of patents for pharmaceuticals, the developing countries were able to extract some procedural and substantive flexibilities like transition period, parallel importation and compulsory licensing to leverage the IP system to further public health. However, there was uncertainty with respect to the interpretation of TRIPS agreement, scope of the flexibilities and Member States’ rights to use them.
[CCIA] A flexible copyright regime is necessary for the continued growth of the digital economy. Principles such as fair use are a cornerstone of U.S. copyright law, and industries that rely on this right are a significant contributor to the U.S. economy and exports. CCIA released a report in 2017 on the economic contribution of fair use industries which found that these industries account for 16 percent of the U.S. economy and generate $5.6 trillion in annual revenue. Fair use is also critical to activities central to new areas of innovation and cutting-edge technology such as artificial intelligence and text and data mining.
[Yousuf Vawda and Bonginkosi Shozi] The Doha Declaration’s twentieth anniversary in November 2021 has taken place in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The experience of the past two years has demonstrated that the very factors that necessitated the Declaration—the problems of inequitable access to medicines and other health technologies for the world’s poor—continue to plague us.
[Fernando dos Santos, Caroline B. Ncube, and Marisella Ouma] Abstract: We debate whether intellectual property (IP) protection of medical products and devices required to prevent, treat and contain COVID-19 should be waived, as proposed by South Africa and India, under the World Trade Organization (WTO)’s Agreement on Trade-related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement). We discuss existing public policy mechanisms under the TRIPS Agreement and how these have been implemented at national level in Africa, and find that these have proven inadequate and that they have been sub-optimally implemented. We then consider the TRIPS Waiver proposal which has been tabled due to the inadequacy of existing mechanisms and outline the EU’s counter proposal which is founded on existing mechanisms.
[Sangeeta Shashikant] The global crisis of COVID-19 has underscored the vital importance of utilizing, to the fullest extent, policy space in the area of intellectual property. Since the onset of the pandemic, many countries around the world have had to confront various challenges of access including to tools protected by intellectual property (IP). These include copyrighted materials as learning shifted to online platforms, and affordable health products and technologies to prevent and treat the infection. The pandemic has also accentuated the significance of local production as limited supplies of critical commodities are rapidly snapped up by developed countries. Since March 2020, the least developed countries (LDCs) have perhaps struggled the most with limited financial resources, facilities and technological capacity to contain the pandemic and deal with its socioeconomic impacts.