Transcript Intellectual Property, Trade and Development

Intellectual Property, Trade and
Development
Dr. Burcu Kilic
Global Access to Medicines Program
[email protected]
October, 2012
www.citizen.org/access
Intellectual Property
• Eminently political in the global
knowledge structure
• Competing demands from the
developed and developing
worlds
• The rights of companies against
the rights of society
• Decisions about IP are not so
much about simply finding ways
to stimulate & reward
innovation …
The TRIPS Agreement
• Powerful symbol of the
globalisation of IP
• Establishes the minimum
standards for IP protection
• Provides ample
opportunities for creative
interpretations
• Raised great deal of public
controversy and debate
• Businesses are no longer
satisfied – “Outliving its
purpose”
Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement
“Biggest threat to free
speech and intellectual
property that you’ve never
heard of”
American Civil Liberties Union
• Promoted as “high standard
21st century agreement”
• A living agreement; remains
relevant to emerging issues
• What could not be obtained
through TRIPS is sought in
TPP
• Promoted as addressing the
weaknesses of TRIPS
• Aims for “golden rules” for
the future of IP
Different visions for the 21st century
• Lack of transparency
• A negotiation chip in a wider
geopolitical context
• Highly constraining and
protectionist IP provisions
• Sets a system up to maximise
the benefits from IP
ownership and pulls up the
ladder for low and middleincome countries
Different visions for the 21st century
• IP touches human life
• No one should die of HIV/AIDS,
tuberculosis, malaria
• The public is now at the IP table
• Call for broader participation in
policy making
• Information is the root and
infrastructure of freedom in
21st century.
• The freedom to understand,
study, tinker with, improve,
modify, share, keep and teach
others what we know
• Re-emergence of ‘citizen
innovator’.
•
Open innovation
Deep politics of IP
• Post-TRIPS experiences
• Deadweight losses & costs
and side effects
• Balance between legitimate
IP rights and continuous
supply of competitivelypriced medicines
• We can end AIDS:
treatment as prevention
• Indonesia: licenses for 7
HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis B
medicines
Kicking Away the Ladder
• IP propaganda: praise the
strong IP protection
• IP fundamentalist view
– “IP piracy is inimical to
development”
– “Strong IP rules promote
innovation and investment”
• Restrict freedom to tailor
national or regional IP
regulations
• Good policies of the past
became bad policies today
Imitation to Innovation
• Historical evidence
• Freedom to design
national IP policies
conducive to
development
• Imitate first, innovate
later
• Copying essential part of
the learning process
COSI FAN TUTTE
Transformation from ‘developing’ to ‘developed’ within a
relatively weak patent system, which allowed for local
absorption of foreign innovations.
Economic Research
•
•
•
•
•
•
Eicher et al. (2006)- Impact of IPR on
innovation is variable depending on the
level of economic development
Thomson &Rushing (1999)- cost of
strengthening the IPRs regime comes at
the expense of developing countries
Chen & Puttitanun (2008)- U-shaped
relationship between IPRs & a country’s
level of development - stronger impact on
innovation in countries with a higher level
of development
Lerner (2009) –examines UK patent filing
around the world. No relationship
between strengthened IP policy and
innovation
Schneider (2006) – uses patent data as a
proxy for innovation. Increased IPR
enforcement leads to more innovation in
developed countries but less in
developing countries.
Falvey et al (2004)- Impact of levels of
strong IP protection: Middle-income
countries- bear the cost of discouraging
imitation
TRIPS-Plus FTA provisions
• Neither theory nor available
studies provide much
guidance on the likely
innovation or development
outcomes of implementing in
trade agreements the strictest
IP rules or none at all.
• World Bank (2005)- Stricter
TRIPS-plus clauses do not
have positive developmental
effects.
• “ Countries have to develop an
IPR strategy appropriate to
their level of development,
and then analyze carefully
which if any IPR provisions
ought to be contained in trade
treaties or RTAs.”
The Sun Rises in the East
• Internationalization of
science, technology and
innovation
• Changing balances &
competing ambitions
• Following
manufacturing, R&D is
now moving East
• Asian markets
demanding regional
responses to regional
needs.
The present situation may be short-lived.
Moving from unipolar to multipolar world.
Will the US government be
so pro-patent when the
proportion of domestic
patents granted to Indian
and Chinese inventors
increase dramatically?
“Now, if the [West has]
incredibly strong IP rules, we are
going to be binding our hands
and feet because we are going
to suffer under the same
regimes that we are being
accused of using to inflict
suffering on others. That’s why
balance is important: it’s in our
own self-interest.”
Ken Cukier, the Economist
Never forget where you
came from -- it might
save you from where
you could end up!
Thank You!!
Any Questions?
Dr. Burcu Kilic
Public Citizen - Washington, D.C.
[email protected]
+1 202 588 1000
www.citizen.org/access