The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (“TRIPS Agreement”) is the first WTO agreement requiring Members to establish a relatively detailed set of substantive norms within their national legal systems, as well as requiring them to establish enforcement measures...

The Open Society Foundations Public Health Program commissioned an interdisciplinary team to examine the extent to which gaps in financing are an obstacle to more robust local production of pharmaceutical products (including diagnostics, vaccines and treatments (DVT)) and personal protective...

The response of the international community to the COVID-19 pandemic has been characterized by a lack of transparency, substantial gaps in scientific understanding, inconsistent communication, lack of capacity for the manufacture of vaccines, substantial gaps in preparedness for diagnostics and...

This paper was prepared by the author for the Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law. It was initially published in the online edition in 2009, and in 2012 appeared in the hard copy bound volumes. The paper describes the various forms of intellectual property, the international...

In the Doha Declaration WTO Members committed themselves to implementing and interpreting the TRIPS Agreement to allow full use of its flexibilities, and to promote access to medicines for all. In the Doha Declaration there was an express acknowledgment of the right of Members to grant...

From the standpoint of developing countries, the possibility of non- violation causes of action being brought under the TRIPS Agreement would give rise to serious risks. In the India-Mailbox decision, in which the Appellate Body (AB) first interpreted the TRIPS Agreement, it stressed reliance on...