For next week’s World Trade Organization intellectual property committee meeting, the major developing economies have submitted a request to discuss the recently released report of the United Nations Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines, according to Knowledge Ecology International (KEI). A key element of the UN report was to make it harder for countries deter or discourage other countries from trying to use patent flexibilities built into the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) – something the major developing economies have been discouraged from doing in the past.
The KEI post is available here and includes the text of the request. The request also included the full text of the panel report, KEI said. Intellectual Property Watch reporting on the High-Level Panel report is here (IPW, United Nations, 14 September 2016).
The WTO Council on TRIPS is scheduled to meet on 8-9 November. Intellectual Property Watch has confirmed that the item has been included on the TRIPS Council agenda. The full agenda for the 8-9 November TRIPS Council is available here [pdf]. [Update: the text of the request is now posted here [pdf] by the WTO.]
The agenda shows that another discussion of “intellectual property and innovation: regional innovation models” has been added. A series of discussions on innovation have been requested by the United States and other countries at recent TRIPS Council meetings.
Meanwhile, according to KEI, this would be the first formal discussion of the High-Level Panel report and recommendations. Below is the text of the request, according to KEI:
Document IP/C/W/619:
Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Original: English
The United Nations Secretary-General’s High Level Panel Report on Access to Medicines
Communication from Brazil, China, India and South Africa
The following communication, dated 27 October 2016 is circulated at the request of Brazil, China, India and South Africa.
1. In November of 2015, the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, convened a High-Level Panel (HLP) on Access to Medicines with an objective “to review and assess proposals and recommend solutions for remedying the policy incoherence between the justifiable rights of inventors, international human rights law, trade rules and public health in the context of health technologies.” On 14 September 2016, the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines released its Final Report.
2. In light of the HLP’s final report, Brazil, China, India and South Africa requests the Secretariat of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to place a dedicated agenda item for consideration at the 8-9 November 2016 session of the TRIPS Council entitled “the United Nations Secretary-General’s High Level Panel Report on Access to Medicines.”
3. This co-sponsors of this communication encourage Members to share their views on the report of the HLP at the 8-9 November 2016 session of the TRIPS Council.