Technical Cooperation under TRIPS Agreement : Implications for Developing Countries

Despite the increase in technical cooperation under TRIPS Agreement by developed countries and multilateral institutions, many developing countries have not taken advantage of the flexibilities within the TRIPS Agreement. There is increasing concern that the providers of technical cooperation focus mainly on the higher level of protection of intellectual property rights and do not fully take into account all the possible options and flexibilities to integrate broader development objectives of developing countries. This paper employs analytical method to address the issue of technical cooperation under the TRIPS Agreement. It argues that TRIPS includes a number of flexibilities inherent in the provisions of objectives and principles, compulsory licences, anti-competitive contractual licences and technology transfer. The paper further argues that technical cooperation under TRIPS requires a multi-stakeholder and constructive debate highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of current programmes and exploring ways to improve them from a development perspective. It would enable developing countries to use TRIPS flexibilities to pursue their development goals through technical cooperation