PHM-Exch> Two important papers about TRIPS

[Claudio Schuftan]

View this email in your browser
<https://mailchi.mp/southcentre/recent-research-papers-january-2024?e=4415b83dfc>


*Announcing Recent South Centre Research Papers:*



*Research Paper No. 190, 24 January 2024: Implementing the Doha Declaration
in OAPI Legislation: Do Transition Periods Matter?*


*By Patrick Juvet Lowé Gnintedem*


The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights
(TRIPS Agreement) provided for a number of transition periods allowing
countries to engage in a phased implementation of their TRIPS obligations.
More specifically, transition periods targeted the patenting of
pharmaceutical products. The original deadlines for transition periods have
expired for developed and developing country WTO members. However, based on
the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health and
subsequent TRIPS Council decisions, least developed countries (LDCs)
continue to benefit from extended transition periods. In the African
Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI), after an amendment in 1999, the
legal framework has evolved with the amendment of the Bangui Agreement,
i.e., the Act of Bamako of 14 December 2015. As for the previous text, the
newly amended Bangui Agreement consecrates the unification on industrial
property amongst its seventeen Member States. The main objective of such an
amendment remains to adapt its legal framework to the international
environment and to the economic and social development needs of Member
States. Yet only five OAPI Member States are developing countries; the
twelve others are LDCs. Then the question arises: do transition periods
consecrated pursuant to the Doha Declaration still matter for LDCs who have
agreed to be subjected to the OAPI legislation? This paper points out that
transition periods remain relevant in OAPI countries by application of the
more favorable rule between the Bangui Agreement and the WTO TRIPS Council
decisions. It is however noted that the OAPI current legal framework is
still problematic, while its LDCs members are underutilizing this
flexibility.


https://www.southcentre.int/research-paper-190-24-january-2024/
<https://southcentre.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=fa9cf38799136b5660f367ba6&id=fdd4c02e64&e=4415b83dfc>


*Research Paper No. 191, 25 January 2024: TRIPS Waiver Decision for
Equitable Access to Medical Countermeasures in the Pandemic: COVID-19
Diagnostics and Therapeutics*


*By Nirmalya Syam and Muhammad Zaheer Abbas, PhD*


The Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (WTO)
allows WTO Members to agree to temporarily waive obligations under the
Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS
Agreement). However, the TRIPS Decision adopted by the 12th WTO Ministerial
Conference in June 2022, after lengthy and protracted negotiations lasting
for 20 months in the middle of a pandemic, allowed only a fragment of the
waiver proposal submitted by India and South Africa. Moreover, since the
adoption of the Decision there has been an impasse in the WTO about
extending the Decision to COVID-19 diagnostics and therapeutics even though
the WTO Members were mandated by the Decision to decide on this matter
within six months of the Decision. This research paper analyses the current
state of play and concludes that there is a need to immediately and
unconditionally extend the Decision to COVID-19 diagnostics and
therapeutics. Moreover, the paper suggests options for how the TRIPS
flexibilities can be optimally utilized in a pandemic situation without
developing countries being resigned to the vagaries of negotiations on a
waiver which is supposed to be an urgent emergency solution. In this
regard, the paper also suggests options that could be considered for
reforming the process of decision-making on a waiver proposal to ensure
that decisions on waivers are taken in a timely and expedited manner
without being negotiated for an extensive period of time in the midst of an
emergency.


https://www.southcentre.int/research-paper-191-25-january-2024/
<https://southcentre.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=fa9cf38799136b5660f367ba6&id=580f59bd86&e=4415b83dfc>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://phm.phmovement.org/pipermail/phm-exchange-phmovement.org/attachments/20240126/745c4131/attachment.htm>