Reconciling Intellectual Property and Public Health - Beyond Plain Packaging

This chapter is the introduction to the book "The New Intellectual Property of Health - Beyond Plain Packaging", which provides the first legal and policy analysis of the intellectual property (IP) aspects of a rapidly growing category of regulatory measures affecting the presentation of certain health-related goods as diverse as tobacco, alcohol, unhealthy foods, and pharmaceuticals. By unearthing a possible tension between these measures and IP regimes, the book explores how to balance the legitimate interests of governments to promote public health with the protection of IP assets. The breadth of the analysis, however, goes beyond providing a mere assessment of the compatibility of these innovative measures with IP rights as enshrined in international, European and domestic regimes as well as investment treaties. The rapid diffusion of these measures across jurisdictions calls for some redefinition of the nature of rights offered by IP legislations, especially in relation to trademarks and, in particular, for a new balancing of IP rights protection with the promotion of public health. Indeed, while these measures carry the promise to enhance public health protection, they require the development of some innovative uses of IP protection