Innovation Hubs, Green Technology Transfer On Agenda Of TRIPS Council

The World Trade Organization intellectual property committee will meet next week with some new issues on the agenda. Ecuador has requested the continuance of a discussion on the transfer of green technologies, and Taiwan and the United States have proposed an agenda item on innovation incubators.

The Council for the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is scheduled to take place from 11-12 June.

The agenda also includes longstanding issues, such as the patentability of plants, geographical indications, and a review of the implementation of the TRIPS agreement.

The new agenda item on innovation incubators requested by Taiwan and the United States comes as next in a series of items on innovation put forward by the US and various countries at the TRIPS Council. No further information was available on the innovation incubators proposal at press time.

During the last session (in February), the US introduced an agenda item on the role of university technology partnerships in intellectual property and innovation (IPW, WTO/TRIPS, 27 February 2014). This was criticised by India, which said that developed countries take for granted the fact that intellectual property boosts development, while developing countries are seeing a lack of evidence to support that assertion.

In June 2013, Canada, Chile, the European Union, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan and the US proposed a discussion on IP and cost-effective innovation, also criticised by India (IPW, WTO/TRIPS, 13 June 2013). In September 2013, the European Union, Jamaica, Mexico and the United States requested an agenda item on intellectual property and sports (IPW, WTO/TRIPS, 29 September 2013). The first of such innovation events was proposed by Brazil and the US, in November 2012 (IPW, WTO/TRIPS, 5 November 2012).

Meanwhile, Ecuador has requested that the TRIPS Council again debate on the contribution of intellectual property to facilitate the transfer of green technology. Ecuador put forward a communication paper [pdf] in February 2013 in which the country asked for a review of Article 31 of TRIPS (Other Use Without Authorization of the Right Holder) in order “to determine which of its provisions may excessively restrict access to and dissemination” of green technologies.

The Council is also expected to continue discussion on non-violation complaints following a decision taken at the Bali Ministerial Conference last December, instructing member countries to reach a decision on the subject by 2015. A moratorium on “non-violation” complaints currently applies to the WTO TRIPS agreement. Under a non-violation complaint, a country can bring a WTO case against another country if the complainant country feels it has been deprived of expected benefits by the other country’s action, despite the fact that there is violation of a WTO rule.

Most countries agree that the moratorium should be turned into a permanent feature while a few oppose the moratorium.

Other usual topics of discussion are the relationship between the TRIPS and the Convention on Biological Diversity, the mandated review of TRIPS Article 27.3(b) (Patentable subject-matter – plants and animals), along with the protection of traditional knowledge and folklore. Also on the agenda is a review of the provisions of the TRIPS section on geographical indications with an eye to extending higher level protection to more products, and the review of the implementation of the TRIPS under Article 71.1 (Review and amendment).