Trips Council charts WTO draft

Amiti Sen

New Delhi, Oct 14: Taking note of concerns voiced by India and other developing countries regarding protection and promotion of public health under the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (Trips) Agreement, the Trips Council has formulated a draft addressing the issues and has proposed to introduce it as a separate ministerial declaration at the fourth WTO Ministerial Conference in Doha.

The Trips Council has also formulated a second draft based on the issues raised by developed countries like Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the US. The draft, which incorporates issues like grounds for compulsory licensing, national emergencies & compulsory licensing and parallel imports, would also be discussed at the Doha meet.

In response to the fears expressed by developing countries that the Trips might hamper access to affordable life-saving medicines, the draft ministerial declaration released on October 4 said that nothing in the Agreement should prevent members from taking measures to protect public health.

It said that each member should retain the right to establish its own policy and rules regarding the exhaustion of intellectual property rights. It added that members have the right to allow other use of the subject-matter of a patent without the authorisation of the right holder, including use by the government or third parties authorised by the government.