TRIPS Agreement of the WTO

This book examines the application of the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) in the fields of agriculture, public health and economic development in a Least Developed Country (LDC) such as Bangladesh. In particular, it evaluates the question whether the TRIPS' one-size-fits-all approach compulsorily applicable for all countries, irrespective of their development standing, fulfils the developmental needs of Bangladesh and other such LDCs in the fields of agriculture, public health and economic development. The book shows that the TRIPS' introduction of IPRs in the name of Plant Varieties Protection (PVP) and patents not only secures private sector investment in agriculture but also brings traditional agricultural practices within the spectrum of private monopoly, increases the price of agricultural products and forces people into dependency on engineered seeds and other agricultural inputs. To guard against such trade rules, this book recommends that Bangladesh should incorporate the TRIPS flexibilities in the form of redefining patentable invention, choosing between patents and PVP and providing for compulsory licensing. This book also reveals that the TRIPS patenting in pharmaceuticals encourages innovations by ensuring royalty collections and protects public health by raising standards of living. However, patenting offers exclusivity to pharmaceutical companies, extending the duration of the patent term and establishing their control over production, supply and distribution. Such control results in exclusivity over drug pricing. The flexibilities of the compliance deadline, compulsory licensing, and parallel importation built into the TRIPS are set to tackle untenable situations arising from patenting exclusivity. However, patent laws in most LDCs are out-dated in terms of dealing with such flexibilities. Given this, the research recommends that Bangladesh should invoke the TRIPS flexibilities. The author of this book further establishes that the TRIPS' standard-setting in agriculture and pharmaceuticals does not help the country to fulfil subsistence needs or promote economic development through innovation. However, the appropriation of agricultural and pharmaceutical goods during the use of the TRIPS flexibilities has the potential to feed the people, protect public health interests and increase economic development with the supply of food and drugs at home and abroad. To this end, the research asks Bangladesh to reform its existing IPRs provisions by redefining patentable inventions and simplifying compulsory licensing and other differential treatments to appropriate foreign technologies.