This volume analyses relationships between patent rights and human rights, focusing on the right to food. Whether the TRIPS Agreement and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights actually conflict, is analyzed through different techniques of assessing treaty conflict.
The TRIPS Agreement is the most comprehensive and influential international treaty on intellectual property rights. It brings intellectual property rules into the framework of the World Trade Organization, obliging all WTO Member States to meet minimum standards of intellectual property protection and enforcement. This has required massive changes in some national laws, particularly in developing countries. This volume provides a detailed legal analysis of the provisions of the TRIPS Agreement, as well as elements to consider their economic implications in different legal and socio-economic contexts. This book provides an in depth analysis of the principles and of the substantive and enforcement provisions of the TRIPS Agreement, the most influential international treaty on intellectual property currently in force. It discusses the legal context in which the Agreement was negotiated, the objectives of their proponents and the nature of the obligations it created for the members of the World Trade Organization. In particular, it examines the minimum standards that must be implemented with regard to patents, trademarks, industrial designs, geographical indications, copyright and related rights, integrated circuits, trade-secrets and test data for pharmaceutical and agrochemical products. Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights: A Commentary on the TRIPS Agreement elaborates on the interpretation of provisions contained in said Agreement, in the light of the customary principles for the interpretation of international law. The analysis -which is supported by a review of the relevant GATT and WTO jurisprudence- identifies the policy space left to such members to implement their obligations in accordance with their own legal systems and public policy objectives, including in respect of complex issues such as patentability criteria, compulsory licenses, exceptions and limitations to copyright, border measures, injunctive relief and the protection of test data under the discipline of unfair competition.
This work addresses the environmental and developmental impacts of patent protection by focusing on the global agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). While the TRIPS agreement serves as an important step in harmonizing international intellectual property systems, the author contends that it currently fails to properly balance public and private interests, especially in the gap between rich and poor.
This practical book highlights the key issues of intellectual property and ownership, genetics, biodiversity and food security. Additionally it covers negotiations in the World Trade Organization, Convention on Biological Diversity, UN Food and Agriculture Organization and various other international bodies.
A comprehensive account of the establishment of the World Trade Organization, focusing on those who shaped its creation as well as those who have influenced its evolution. The book examines trade negotiations, the WTO's dispute settlement role, the presence of coalitions and groupings within the WTO, the process of joining the organization and many other topics, including what lies ahead for the organization.
The volume offers to the reader a multi-faceted dialogue between noted experts from two major agricultural countries, both founding members of the Word Trade Organisation, each one with different stakes in the great globalisation game. After providing the recent historical background of agricultural policies in India and France, the contributors address burning issues related to market and regulation, food security and food safety, the expected benefits from the WTO and the genuine problems raised by the new forms of international trade in agriculture, including the sensitive question of intellectual property rights in bio-technologies. This informed volume underlines the necessity of moving beyond the North-South divide, in order to address the real challenges of the future.
As the world confronts global warming, there is a growing consensus that the TRIPS Agreement could be a more effective instrument for mitigating climate change. In this innovative work, Wei Zhuang systematically examines the contextual elements that can be used in the interpretation of the TRIPS Agreement with a view to enhancing innovation and transfer of environmentally sound technologies. Zhuang proposes a balanced and pro-competitive interpretation that could be pursued by policymakers and negotiators. This comprehensive, multidisciplinary study will help academics and policymakers improve their understanding of the contemporary international legal regimes governing intellectual property rights, as well as innovation and transfer of environmentally sound technologies. It also offers practical guidance for further developing a legal system capable of responding to the challenges posed by climate change.
NAture of obligations, principles and objectives; Substantive obligations; Intellectual property rights and competition; Enforcemente, maintenance and acquisition of rights; Interpretation and dispute settlement and prevention; Transitional and institutional arragements.
This book examines the application of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) in the fields of agriculture, public health and economic development in a Least Developed Country (LDC) such as Bangladesh. In particular, it evaluates the question whether the TRIPS’ one-size-fits-all approach compulsorily applicable for all countries, irrespective of their development standing, fulfils the developmental needs of Bangladesh and other such LDCs in the fields of agriculture, public health and economic development. The book shows that the TRIPS’ introduction of IPRs in the name of Plant Varieties Protection (PVP) and patents not only secures private sector investment in agriculture but also brings traditional agricultural practices within the spectrum of private monopoly, increases the price of agricultural products and forces people into dependency on engineered seeds and other agricultural inputs. To guard against such trade rules, this book recommends that Bangladesh should incorporate the TRIPS flexibilities in the form of redefining patentable invention, choosing between patents and PVP and providing for compulsory licensing. This book also reveals that the TRIPS patenting in pharmaceuticals encourages innovations by ensuring royalty collections and protects public health by raising standards of living. However, patenting offers exclusivity to pharmaceutical companies, extending the duration of the patent term and establishing their control over production, supply and distribution. Such control results in exclusivity over drug pricing. The flexibilities of the compliance deadline, compulsory licensing, and parallel importation built into the TRIPS are set to tackle untenable situations arising from patenting exclusivity. However, patent laws in most LDCs are out-dated in terms of dealing with such flexibilities. Given this, the research recommends that Bangladesh should invoke the TRIPS flexibilities. The author of this book further establishes that the TRIPS’ standard-setting in agriculture and pharmaceuticals does not help the country to fulfil subsistence needs or promote economic development through innovation. However, the appropriation of agricultural and pharmaceutical goods during the use of the TRIPS flexibilities has the potential to feed the people, protect public health interests and increase economic development with the supply of food and drugs at home and abroad. To this end, the research asks Bangladesh to reform its existing IPRs provisions by redefining patentable inventions and simplifying compulsory licensing and other differential treatments to appropriate foreign technologies.