Intellectual property

Public health is inherently a global challenge and thus assumes high priority for international cooperation. The World Health Organization (WHO) is the directing and coordinating authority for health but the interaction between health issues and other policy domains – human rights development policy intellectual property (IP) and international trade – creates a strong rationale for cooperation and coordination between the WHO and other international organizations in particular the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). This study and its updated and reviewed second edition have emerged from an ongoing programme of trilateral cooperation among these agencies. It responds to an increasing demand particularly in developing countries for strengthened capacity for informed policy-making in areas of intersection between health trade and IP focusing on access to and innovation of medicines and other medical technologies. The need for cooperation and coherence at the international level has intensified over the past decades as successive multilateral decisions have confirmed.

Le monde est en constante évolution porté par les innovations technologiques qui influent sur notre façon de vivre et de faire des affaires. L’histoire de l’économie mondiale est intimement liée aux progrès technologiques. L’invention de la machine à vapeur a conduit à la mécanisation de la production la découverte de l’électricité a permis la production de masse et grâce à l’essor d’Internet il est devenu possible de coordonner à distance les différentes étapes de la production ce qui a entraîné la fragmentation de la production et l’apparition des chaînes de valeur mondiales.

The TRIPS Agreement gives effect to a principle of transparency founded on a system of notifications about how countries choose to implement TRIPS provisions. These notifications built up since 1996 now amount to a useful collection of factual information about national IP systems as well as specific details on key issues such as incentives for transfer of technology and contact points within national systems. These notifications help the Council for TRIPS to monitor the operation of the Agreement and to promote understanding of Members’ IP policies.

At the heart of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is a set of rules that regulate trade between nations: a body of agreements which have been negotiated and signed by governments of most of the world’s trading nations with the aim of promoting transparency predictability and nondiscrimination in trading relations. These agreements covering trade in goods trade in services and trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights help to define and inform the multiple roles of the WTO as an international intergovernmental organization in administering the provisions of these agreements providing a forum for trade negotiations handling trade disputes monitoring national trade policies providing technical assistance and capacity building for developing countries and cooperating with other international organizations. Understanding these agreements and their practical policy and legal contexts therefore provides significant insights into the WTO as an institution its activities and international role its partnerships with other organizations and the way in which WTO member governments identify and pursue their national interests through this intergovernmental forum.

Public health has been a priority for global action for many years. The right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health is a universal human right just as the burden of disease is shared by all humanity.

This chapter offers an overview of the main determinants of access related to health systems intellectual property (IP) and trade policy. Many other very important socio-economic factors determine access to medical technologies – factors such as health financing the importance of a qualified health care workforce poverty and cultural issues – and lack of access is rarely due entirely to a single determinant but these are not addressed in this study as they are not part of the interface between health IP and trade.