Human Rights and the WTO


Book Description

This book examines one of the most controversial aspects of the world trading system: patents and access to medication, and offers approaches to tackle the issue of how to better accommodate human rights in the trading system.




Intellectual Property and International Trade: The TRIPS Agreement


Book Description

The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is the most far-reaching and comprehensive legal regime ever concluded at the multilateral level in the area of intellectual property rights (IPR). Compared to prior IPR conventions, TRIPS constitutes a major qualitative leap which radically modifies not only the context in which IPR are considered internationally, but also their substantive content and the methods for their enforcement and dispute settlement. This much-welcomed treatise, now in its third edition, thoroughly updates its comprehensive analysis of the substantive provisions of the Agreement and their actual interpretation and application in different jurisdictions, with new material on the burgeoning case law and on major changes in plant variety protection. As in previous editions, the book may be relied upon for in-depth clarification of such matters as the following: • standards established under the agreement; • enforcement measures; • social and legal issues; • legal and policy possibilities offered; • legislative latitude allowed to WTO Member States; • incorporation of TRIPS into domestic law; • protection of integrated circuit design; • protection of innovation and R&D for diseases that disproportionately affect developing countries; • challenges raised by ongoing technological changes; • access to medicines; • protection of confidential (undisclosed) information; and • interface between competition law and intellectual property protection. With fifteen chapters contributed by a distinguished panel of experts representing diverse parties — international organisations, legal practice, government policy, and academia — the third edition offers an incomparable framework for understanding the background, principles, and complex provisions of the TRIPS Agreement. Thoroughly revised and updated, the third edition will be of great value to all professionals and business people concerned with international trade. It stimulates further discussion and analysis in this area of growing importance to international law and international economic relations, particularly regarding the possibilities offered by the Agreement and the loose ends that may need consideration in the future at the national or international level.




The Right to Food and the Trips Agreement


Book Description

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.




Human Rights and Intellectual Property


Book Description

This book explores the interface between intellectual property and human rights law and policy. The relationship between these two fields has captured the attention of governments, policymakers, and activist communities in a diverse array of international and domestic political and judicial venues. These actors often raise human rights arguments as counterweights to the expansion of intellectual property in areas including freedom of expression, public health, education, privacy, agriculture, and the rights of indigenous peoples. At the same time, creators and owners of intellectual property are asserting a human rights justification for the expansion of legal protections. This book explores the legal, institutional, and political implications of these competing claims: by offering a framework for exploring the connections and divergences between these subjects; by identifying the pathways along which jurisprudence, policy, and political discourse are likely to evolve; and by serving as an educational resource for scholars, activists, and students.




TRIPS plus 20


Book Description

This book examines the impact and shortcomings of the TRIPS Agreement, which was signed in Marrakesh on 15 April 1994. Over the last 20 years, the framework conditions have changed fundamentally. New technologies have emerged, markets have expanded beyond national borders, some developing states have become global players, the terms of international competition have changed, and the intellectual property system faces increasing friction with public policies. The contributions to this book inquire into whether the TRIPS Agreement should still be seen only as part of an international trade regulation, or whether it needs to be understood – or even reconceptualized – as a framework regulation for the international protection of intellectual property. The purpose, therefore, is not to define the terms of an outright revision of the TRIPS Agreement but rather to discuss the framework conditions for an interpretative evolution that could make the Agreement better suited to the expectations and needs of today’s global economy.




Intellectual Property, Human Rights and Development


Book Description

This book explores the role played by Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in articulating concerns at the TRIPS Council, the WIPO, the WHO, the CBD-COP and the FAO that intellectual property rights can have negative consequences for developing countries.




Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights


Book Description

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.




Intellectual Property and Human Rights


Book Description

. . . very refreshing. . . a valuable contribution to the debate. European Intellectual Property Review The collection of articles makes a valuable contribution to current debates on these critically important issues by providing a range of views on the human rights implications of intellectual property law and policy. Madhu Sahni, Journal of Intellectual Property Rights Gathering together essays by leading commentators, Professor Willem Grosheide s timely book offers an excellent overview of the many significant questions of social and legal policy that emerge at interface between intellectual property and human rights. . . Providing a range of views on the human rights implications of intellectual property law and policy, this collection makes a valuable contribution to current debates on these critically important issues. Graeme Austin, University of Arizona, US In the modern era where the rise of the knowledge economy is accompanied, if not facilitated, by an ever-expanding use of intellectual property rights, this timely book provides a much needed explanation to the relationship between intellectual property law and human rights law. The contributors promote the view that this relationship should be central to the analysis of many of the profound problems that nation states and the international community encounter today, be they scientific, technological or cultural. The book is divided into sections covering the law and its trends, IP rights as human rights and human rights as restrictions to IP rights. This stimulating book will appeal to academics, postgraduate students, national and international public authorities and those involved with international organizations in the fields of intellectual property law and human rights law.




Human Rights and Intellectual Property Rights


Book Description

This collection explores this balance and the extent to which human rights standards can influence the interpretation of IP norms, for example in defining the scope of IPRs."--BOOK JACKET.