Topics Covered: IP Related issues.
Intellectual property waiver for Covid-19 vaccines:
Context:
The United States has announced support for waiving intellectual property protection for Covid-19 vaccines, saying extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary measures.
- The US will pursue “text-based negotiations” on the waiver at the World Trade Organization (WTO).
What are Text-based negotiations?
They involve negotiators exchanging texts with their preferred wording and then thrashing out a consensus on the working — a fairly long-drawn affair.
What does the intellectual property waiver for Covid-19 vaccines mean?
The IP waiver might open up space for production of Covid vaccines with emergency use authorisations (EUA) — such as those developed by Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Novavax, Johnson & Johnson and Bharat Biotech — on a larger scale in middle-income countries.
- Most production is currently concentrated in high-income countries; production by middle-income countries has been happening through licensing or technology transfer agreements.
What was the earlier proposal from India and South Africa?
In October 2020, India and South Africa had asked the WTO to waive certain conditions of the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement that could impede timely access to affordable medical products to combat Covid-19.
- The countries had asked the TRIPS Council to recommend, “as early as possible”, a waiver on the implementation, application and enforcement of four sections in the second part of the agreement.
- These sections — 1, 4, 5, and 7 — pertain to copyright and related rights, industrial designs, patents, and the protection of undisclosed information.
What are patents and IP rights?
A patent represents a powerful intellectual property right, and is an exclusive monopoly granted by a government to an inventor for a limited, pre-specified time. It provides an enforceable legal right to prevent others from copying the invention.
Patents can be either process patents or product patents:
- A product patent ensures that the rights to the final product is protected, and anyone other than the patent holder can be restrained from manufacturing it during a specified period, even if they were to use a different process.
- A process patent enables any person other than the patent holder to manufacture the patented product by modifying certain processes in the manufacturing exercise.
Patent regime in India:
India moved from product patenting to process patenting in the 1970s, which enabled India to become a significant producer of generic drugs at global scale, and allowed companies like Cipla to provide Africa with anti-HIV drugs in the 1990s.
- But due to obligations arising out of the TRIPS Agreement, India had to amend the Patents Act in 2005, and switch to a product patents regime across the pharma, chemicals, and biotech sectors.
InstaLinks:
Prelims Link:
- What is TRIPS?
- Indian Patents Act, 2005.
- Patent regime in India.
- What is compulsory Licensing?
Mains Link:
Write a note on compulsory Licensing.
Sources: Indian Express.
