PCL 13 TRIPS (Trade Related Aspects of Intelectual Property Rights)

ESSENTIAL INFORMATION

- International agreement, adminstired by World Trade Organisation

- Set standard for intelectual property regulation
~ nations law must meet for copyrights rights
~ protect confidential information
~ trademarks

- was negotiated at the end of Uruguay Round of General Agreement Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
in 1994

- most comprehensive international agreement on intelectual property



COMPULSORY LICENSING IN PUBLIC HEALTH

-enables a competent government authority to license compulsory licensing of patented
invention to a third party or government agency witouth the consent of patent holder

- Article 31 of the Agreement sets forth a number of conditions for the granting of compulsory \
licences.
~ include a case-by-case determination of compulsory licence applications,
~ the need to demonstrate prior (unsuccessful) negotiations with the patent owner for a
voluntary licence and the payment of adequate remuneration to the patent holder.
~ address a national emergency or other circumstances of extreme urgency, certain
requirements are waived in order to hasten the process, such as that for the need to have had
prior negotiations obtain a voluntary licence from the patent holder

- leaves Members full freedom to stipulate other grounds, such as those related to non-working
of patents, public health or public interest.


PARALLEL IMPORTATION

- parallel importation is importation without the consent of the patent-holder of a patented
product marketed in another country either by the patent holder or with the patent-holder’s
consent.

-the principle of exhaustion states that once patent holders, or any party authorized by him,
have sold a patented product, they cannot prohibit the subsequent resale of that product since
their rights in respect of that market have been exhausted by the act of selling the product.

- since many patented products are sold at different prices in different markets, the rationale
for parallel importation is to enable the import of lower priced patented products


EXTENSION OF TRANSITION PERIOD FOR LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES

-the Doha Declaration also extended the transition period for LDCs for implementation of the TRIPS obligations from 2006 to 2016.

-however, the extension is limited to the obligations under provisions in the TRIPS Agreement relating to patents and marketing rights, and data protection for pharmaceutical products. Thus, LDCs are still obliged to implement the rest of their obligations under the TRIPS Agreement as of 2006