the legal texts of wto consist of about 60 agreements, annexes, decisions and understandings containing so many obligations which should be observed and enforced by member states. enforcement of these numereous obligations requires effective dispute settlement mechanisms to guarantee the proper function of the system. in wto two main mechanisms have been designed for this purpose. the first is ...

I. TRIPS A. Patentability B. Patent Rights 1. Exclusive Rights—Article 28 2. Exceptions to Patent Rights a. Article 30—A “Limited Exception” to Patent Rights b. Article 31—“Other Use” C. Patent “Plus” Protection: Test Data II. TRIPS-PLUS A. Patentability B. Patent Rights 1. Limited Compulsory Licensing During Patent Term 2. Limits on Parallel Imports C. Tension within TRIPS-Plus Agreements and ...

BACKGROUND The reform of pharmaceutical policy can often involve trade-offs between competing social and commercial goals. Canada's Access to Medicines Regime (CAMR), a legislative amendment that permits compulsory licensing for the production and export of medicines to developing countries, aimed to reconcile these goals. Since it was passed in 2004, only two orders of antiretroviral drugs, en...

Among the many trade conoicts that divide the postindustrial economies of Europe, the United States, Japan, and the Commonwealth from the less information-driven economies of the rest of the world, one of the most consequential is the debate over how to balance access to medicines with the intellectual property protection demanded by their developers. Among the many facets of this debate is the...

Access to affordable drugs for the treatment of HIV/AIDS and other diseases is increasingly challenging in many developing countries such as Brazil, South Africa, and India. These challenges are in part the result of strengthened patent laws mandated by the 1994 Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) treaty. However, there are underutilized instruments within TRIPS that g...

While external pressure to change intellectual property (IP) regimes has abated, India faces other challenges not just as a net user/importer but as net creator—actual and potential—of IP. This paper outlines the responses to the four challenges that lie ahead. First, India should consider revising its draft IP legislation so that TRIPs obligations can serve as a mechanism for enforcing its mar...

<p>Unequal access to vaccines for the Covid-19 pandemic, also referred as “vaccine apartheid,” has marginalized low-income countries again. In October 2020, India and South Africa proposed a temporary waiver from certain provisions of TRIPS Agreement prevention Covid-19<em> </em>at World Trade Organization (WTO). An agreement was later reached in Geneva on June 17, 2022. The o...

The TRIPS Agreement of the World Trade Organization (WTO) mandated the introduction of protection of intellectual property rights, notably patents, for pharmaceutical products. While the implications for the access to medicines contained in the terms of this Agreement raised significant concerns, a recent new wave of free trade agreements, negotiated outside the WTO, requires even higher levels...

When the Uruguay Rounds concluded in 1994, many countries signed on to the trade agreements creating the World Trade Organization (WTO) in hopes of benefiting from a system of trade rules “dedicated to open, fair and undistorted competition” (1). WTO members also undertook to implement the TradeRelated Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement. Developing countries, major develo...