1,721,021 research outputs found
Thailand
No full textWithin two relatively short periods – from November 2006 to January 2007 and in January 2008 – the government of Thailand, which has been a world trade organization member since 1995, issued seven compulsory licenses, citing public health as a ground to justify its actions. The government is mainly responsible for health-care expenditure in Thailand. In 2002, Thailand adopted the national health security act, which covered most Thai citizens under a national insurance scheme. Thailand's government use licenses, like other compulsory licensing activities, created a dichotomy between supporters and objectors. Internationally, public health activists praised and congratulated Thailand for advancing access to medicines, while patent advocates fiercely criticized the Thai policy for expropriating private property. Thailand's compulsory licensing granted by a postcoup government was seen as a solution for bridging financial shortage resulting from its political turmoil, rather than an appropriate means to reduce public health costs
The Global South as the Key to Biodiversity and Biotechnology - A Reply to Prof. Chen
No full textThis Dialogue seeks to respond to Prof. Jim Chen\u27s recent Article in the Environmental Law Reporter, Diversity and Deadlock: Transcending Conventional Wisdom on the Relationship Between Biological Diversity and Intellectual Property. In that Article, Professor Chen highlights the role of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in protecting biodiversity. This Dialogue argues that the CBD is an inherently ineffective mechanism to protect biodiversity. It disagrees with Professor Chen\u27s argument that the CBD provides for access to technology and wealth transferred to the global South from the global North. In his Article, Professor Chen concludes that contrary to the fear of the North, the CBD promotes trade and facilitates the acquisition of technology by developing countries from the developed world.This Dialogue highlights the gaps in the CBD and challenges its capacity to conserve biodiversity. It demonstrates that in practice the CBD actually precludes the flow of benefits to the South. The CBD works in tandem with the other international treaties, particularly the annex on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), and the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV)6 to facilitate proprietary protection over biotechnology. Contrary to Professor Chen\u27s conclusions, TRIPS and the UPOV concern themselves with neither biopiracy nor the flow of technology to the South. This Dialogue concludes that while the active participation of the South is the key to protection of biodiversity and prevention of intellectual property piracy, these goals will be hard to come by unless there is fairness of treatment for the South in the various conventions
Drugs, Drugs Everywhere but Just Not for the Poor
Full text linkThe objective for this article is to understand the legitimacy and limitations of US involvement in another country’s sovereign actions taken expressly in the public interest, or to protect public health, such as the compulsory licensing of pharmaceuticals
The Use Doctrine in Trademark Law: Issues from Trade and Transborder Reputation
Full text linkMindful of the current trend within the United States to revive the focus on the use of trademark to determine a mark’s ability to act as a source indicator, in this paper I highlight how focusing on use can create disparate results by examining the role of use when dealing with well-known marks. Hence, this paper implicates the prescriptions from the harmonized trade regime, especially trademark law. In doing so, the paper outlines larger public policy concerns that will ensue especially considering the role of the use doctrine in the context of international harmonization of protection of well-known trademarks. In order to do so, this paper examines protection of foreign marks in two jurisdictions, India and the United States, to identify global public policy concerns which has national implications. The study debunks the myth that harmonization would result in trading partners extending reciprocal treatment. That is, inapposite to the touted position, this paper uses the well-known marks example to outline disparate outcomes that ensue when focusing on use as source indicator. In highlighting how harmonization has not resulted in uniformity or predictability internationally to identify and recognize well-known trademarks, this paper discusses how the lack of predictability under a harmonized system has raised strong public policy concerns as well as economic outcomes that may be detrimental to some markets but beneficial to others. Overall, this paper asserts that a coherent approach will have to necessarily involve some level of flexibilities in the trade regime to determine constituents of fame for a well-known trademark in each jurisdiction
Make America Healthy: Reducing High Pharmaceutical Prices Without Reducing Innovation
Full text linkCost of medication in the United States has historically remained one of the highest in the world. The conundrum that the United States has faced in balancing innovation with affordability of life-saving medications is palpable, especially when faced with the reality of patent monopolies conflicting with healthcare obligations. The result is an overflow of issues, which emphasize the need to delineate limits on innovation to balance pharmaceutical novelty with robust public health within the United States. This has increasingly shifted the focus of patent law into the realm of healthcare issues. Naturally, it leads to an inquiry about how best to engage in an exercise of prioritizing affordability to enable access to life-saving medications to all people as opposed to a select few. The casualty of the conundrums and conflicts that prevail between patent law and its interludes into healthcare access and trade law is unfortunate and leaves the American consumer literally unhealthy. Meanwhile, a lack of health equity has forced legislators to engage with the public health issues of their constituents to explore solutions that improve affordability and access to high-priced pharmaceuticals. One such legislative solution, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022, forms the backdrop for this paper.
With that background, this paper engages with simple questions. How did prices get so high in the first place? What can be done to dismantle barriers to make America healthy, literally? To answer this, the paper addresses the root causes of high drug prices. It explores how established policies and practices, which Americans fund in the first place, limit affordability and access to life-saving medications. In tracing high drug prices to their source, this paper identifies burdensome legal barriers that prevent both generic and biosimilar medications from entering the market in a timely manner. It also identifies solutions. Specifically, the paper explores whether, and if so, how, agency action between the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can intervene to alleviate the burdens. To do this effectively, this paper uses the insulin story and the Humira story to discuss market-entry barriers and to provide suggestions for market entry of generic and biosimilar medications
A Patent Restriction on Research & Development: Infringers or Innovators?
Full text linkThe Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights ( TRIPS ) requires developing nations to harmonize patent regimes as a means to achieve stronger industrial growth. Countries, however, need to adopt effective patent procedures in order to successfully institute a patent regime. In spite of this, international treaties like TRIPS do not properly assist developing nations in establishing appropriate procedural mechanisms capable of complimenting a sophisticated patent regime. Consequently, developing nations may embrace ineffective patent procedures that can eventually further limit industrial growth despite establishing a TRIPS compliant patent regime. The paper uses India as a case study to demonstrate the detriments of not instituting appropriate patent procedures assuming India embraces a product patent regime as required under TRIPS. Then, the paper contrasts the procedural mechanisms established in patent regimes of developed nations such as the United States and, to a lesser extent, the European Union. The solution for patent harmonization lies in adequately complimenting patent regimes by equipping developing nations with appropriate and flexible procedural tools, based on national needs, to ultimately encourage local invention
Can\u27t We All Get Along? The Case for a Workable Patent Model
Full text linkThe global move towards a trade regime has been impeded by challenges of poverty and health crisis for the developing nations. Until now, the developed nations have touted the establishment of a trade regime as envisaged under TRIPS as the solution for the national challenges. This paper examines the effectiveness of TRIPS as a mechanism to move towards a trade regime. It argues that the patent policy in TRIPS cannot gear the world towards patent harmonization but can potentially adversely impact the developed nations and the post-world war trade structure. The impediments affecting the effectiveness of TRIPS as a harmonizing mechanism are identified to enable the chartering of a future strategy. This paper discusses the impact of the current WTO patent policy on the developed nation and the post-world war trade structure. The impediments affecting the effectiveness of TRIPS as a harmonizing mechanism are identified to enable the chartering of a future strategy. The paper distinguishes itself from other contributions on this subject by focusing on the impact on developed nations. The imminence for creating long-term strategies for harmonizing trade regimes is highlighted by the failure of TRIPS in pharmaceutical patents and the legitimization of the generic drug industry vide the Doha Declaration. Using India and Brazil as case studies, this paper emphasizes that future trade regimes should create enforceable contracts. The agenda should focus on empowering the third world to become trade partners rather than to merely use third world as a means to prevent international trade distortions. The flexibilities within the international intellectual property rules need to be fully explored to enable nations to use them as ingredients for economic development. The American patent regime itself embodies lessons in effective use of flexibilities to encourage industrial development. Solutions ranging from sectoral harmonization to integrating trade issues with other areas like health and environment should be fully explored. International policies furthering trade should pave a solution for developing nations to reconcile fundamental infrastructure issues. Global policies should dictate the need for sensitivity and awareness of national issues - an element lacking in TRIPS - to evolve economic changes affecting trade favorably. Taking account of and providing solution to issues that nations are bound to face in transitioning towards a global regime is the key to forge harmonization. In fulfilling international obligations, countries need to benefit nationally either economically or by solving key issues
A Note on India’s Attempt to Reconcile Diversity and Intellectual Property Issues
Full text linkFor developing countries, the concept of diversity holds great promises not least because of the protection it promises for the fast depleting natural resources leading to catastrophic effect on the environment. The concept of diversity also holds great promises from a trade perspective. In reality, appropriate protection of diversity can be the solution to balance the effects of the trade regime to achieve sustainable development. The term sustainable development, as opposed to rapid pockets of development, embodies great promises for the socio-political framework in poorer nations, apart from the obvious benefit of sustainability. In fact, sustainable development, if it ensues, would complete the trade regime‘s agenda by supplying the missing piece of the puzzle. From a practical standpoint, at the very basic level, sustainable development promises a level of inclusiveness, which can facilitate addressing broader national issues. Similarly, sustainable development is compatible with the larger trade agenda by promising to include newer forms of trading capital – such as biodiversity for biotechnology or traditional knowledge for pharmaceutical innovation - hitherto excluded from the trade regime. The trade regime which traditionally deals with what is typically western properties like goods, services, patents and investments, can, in turn, benefit from the dynamism resulting from say, trade in biodiversity and traditional knowledge. This paper will discuss the issues that impact biodiversity protection as a result of its interaction with the trade regime. Particularly, this paper will focus on India and the issues it faces from embracing the biodiversity and the trade regime
Global Perspectives of Data Exclusivity
No full textThe presentation will focus on how pharmaceutical companies have expertly navigated the confluence of patents with regulatory data protection to leverage the market in order to effectively create increased protection and financial rewards for materials that could otherwise be susceptible to generic competition. The focus of the presentation will be on the international trade obligations relating to providing data exclusivity, and the solution to alleviate the adverse impact of data exclusivity obligations on access to medication with a specific focus on developing countries while keeping the US regime as the vantage point to examine the issues
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