The WTO TRIPS Agreement: International Trade Rules on Intellectual Property
Oxfam believes the TRIPS Agreement should be revised to safeguard every country's ability to obtain affordable medicines.
The "Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Agreement" (known as TRIPS) is an agreement administered by the World Trade Organization that sets forth minimum standards of intellectual property protection (copyright, patents, trademarks) that all WTO members must incorporate in their national laws.
Industries concerned with high levels of protection for intellectual property, such as the pharmaceutical and recording industries, lobbied hard for passage of the TRIPS Agreement, and it sets very high standards. Unfortunately, poor countries have not been as successful in their lobbying. Oxfam would like to see the effects of the TRIPS Agreement on poor countries evaluated. It should be revised to safeguard every country's ability to obtain affordable medicines.
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| By: Toby Adamson/Oxfam |
The Agreement entered into force in 1996. Countries at different levels of development were given different timelines for compliance. It is very expensive to institute a comprehensive system of intellectual property protection. Such systems include evaluation of applications, enforcement, a legal system providing redress for violations of IP rights, and other measures. Developing and least developed countries were given until 2006 to comply with TRIPS. The deadline for the poorest least developed countries was extended again in 2001, so they now have until 2016 to bring their national laws into compliance with TRIPS. Technical assistance is provided by the WTO and by WTO members to assist them in meeting their obligations.
The TRIPS Agreement grants patent protection to pharmaceutical products for a period of 20 years. This in effect gives innovators monopoly control over the production, distribution, and marketing of new medicines and medical products for that time period. It enables patent holders to fix high prices for their medicines, since they face no competition.
Critics of the TRIPS agreement say it mandates excessively high levels of intellectual property protection. Some argue that by granting innovators monopoly rights over all products–including medicines and seeds–the Agreement prioritizes corporate interests over human rights, such as the right to health or the right to a sustainable livelihood. Since they don't face competition to their patented products, patent holders often price the products out of the reach of poor consumers. In the case of medicines, this can have grave consequences for public health, especially when countries face epidemics such as HIV/AIDS.