TDS 2015
VISIT OUR WEBPAGE www.tripsplusultra.com FOR AN INTERACTIVE REVIEW OF THE TRIPS PLUS ULTRA PROPOSAL!
Esteban Donoso´s presentation at TDS 2015
I want to tell you about a new proposal, called TRIPS PLUS ULTRA.
Let me explain what each word, TRIPS PLUS ULTRA, represents. This way you will understand the proposal and its name, better.
TRIPS is the acronym for the international agreement of Intellectual Property created by the World Trade Organization, as you know, more than 20 years ago. We want to change this agreement, its article 33, in order to implement an equitable burden sharing system for patents, in which each country contributes in accordance to its wealth to promote new technologies. It is as simple as that.
If implemented, the current system could afford many other changes. Maybe… And hopefully. Before this, before TRIPS PLUS ULTRA, no proposal stands a chance. No proposal to change the TRIPS has stood a chance for more than 20 years!!
TRIPS is here to stay, and this has to be recognized with geopolitical pragmatism.
PLUS means more in Latin, as in many other languages. It also describes, when used together with the acronym TRIPS, as in “TRIPS PLUS”, the international push for more and stronger protection of Intellectual Property. TRIPS PLUS is a name given by the academia in Europe and the US to denounce this. The bad guys in this narrative are their governments, the US and Europe, because the US and Europe tend to create more and stronger Intellectual Property within their borders, especially the US, because they truly believe this is the path for global development, especially the US…. Due to the strong leadership of the US and Europe, little by little, free trade agreement by free trade agreement, the law of the land in most countries is becoming TRIPS PLUS.
But TRIPS PLUS is not welcome in the developing world. Neither TRIPS nor TRIPS PLUS distributes the weight of the burden of innovation properly. The answer may be as simple as to change that.
ULTRA, finally, means beyond in Latin. TRIPS PLUS ULTRA will basically reset the TRIPS and make it a more just and efficient model, as we will see. It will go beyond! This equitable burden sharing system will change everything.
You have a chart in you hands, I hope. In it you will see a long list. All countries in the world are mentioned in it. Each country has a different patent length, which changes year by year. This is the big change that will reset the system.
Proportionality in the contribution that we as a whole give to innovators, regardless their nationality, is a pragmatic answer. TRIPS PLUS ULTRA is convenient for both sides, poor countries and rich countries, and the ones in between, alike. That is the
beauty of it, and he benefits will be felt in the short term.
TRIPS PLUS ULTRA will liberate burden for the poorest, and in a drastic way. This is just. The system will also yield more profit for innovators and, specially, it will be produce in a more efficient way.
TRIPS PLUS ULTRA is convenient for both sides, and as soon as implemented!
To implement TRIPS PLUS ULTRA I have design a formula, which is by no means the only way to get to a similar result, in which the years by country are going to change, but the current overall global reward is not going to move. This formula yields the chart that I hope you have in your hands.
What about the innovators. Lets take the Indian and Europe patent to explain by an example. Any innovator, if they register their patents it in both places, will have the same potential reward regardless if they are from India, Europe or even anywhere else, do to the non discrimination policies of the World Trade Organization.
The economic return produced by additional years in the countries that will give more than 20 years according to the chart, roughly the 27 first countries in the list, which are the richest countries in the world, will more than cover for India having only 7 years patents instead of 20 years patents. India is a huge market, and it will certainly hurt innovators to loose that revenue, sure, but it will be compensated.
Countries like Botswana will have to give 14 years, which is more than many other developing countries, like for example Ecuador, my country, with 11 years. It is because Botswana is in a better condition than Ecuador. That is solidarity. That is equity.
China is an amazing case. See in the chart how its contribution grows from 7 years to 13 years in a decade.
Everybody looks as a winner? Are there any losers with this proposal? Well, of course, yes, there are. The poor in the United States, for instance. Their government is better equipped, though, than many poor countries to help their own. Many developed countries have solid social security systems that could certainly take it.
The TRIPS PLUS ULTRA proposal will reset the system. That is why I say it will go beyond. Arguments identified with one side will be flipped to the other. For instance, too strong a protection will cease to be commercially convenient per se, on its own, for the United States, Japan, Europe and other developed countries, as it is now. This will change everything.
It will then, if TRIPS PLUS ULTRA gets to be implemented, be easier to have a real talk.
Another example.
In the developing world there is poverty, but there is also creativity. Yet, although there is creativity, companies or persons in the developed world don’t file many patents. I just yesterday met a Kenyan innovator who has a marvelous new idea, maybe not worth of patent protection in some countries, though.
If the system became TRIPS PLUS ULTRA, poor countries could push for the global protection of “utility models” or “petit patents” as full patents. It is the kind of innovation that is more easily produced in the developing world. Imagine a world in which a student from the University of Nairobi has a new idea, goes to its national office and automatically gets a worldwide patent that then she could enforce in all markets of the world. Imagine a cheep harmonized and worldwide system. The global patent!
Let me give you yet another example of how the arguments will change. I have hopes that if this proposal is implemented, we could constrain the use of compulsory licensing and, by doing so, provide at least some relief for the orphan diseases problem. This is a revolutionary idea for developing countries in it self. The promise of a reward in big markets like Brazil, Mexico and China could do the trick! Only by resetting the system, this could be plausible.
Market approval could be tricky. I don’t have the time now to address this issue, THOUGH. It is addressed in my publications.
Maybe we can address this in the questions and discussion.
Additionally I have theorized about other advantages of my proposed system. Among them technology transfer could actually be enhanced. I don’t have, sadly, the time now to explain this and other issues. Nor I have the time to explain how I got to the economic conclusion that the system will be more efficient. It has to do with the deadweight reduction that is proven with the modest chart used as the cover of your materials and now showed in the slide, plus the explanation that precedes it at one of my papers at JIPEL. The chart, with the list of all countries in the world, THE ONE I hope you have got to know and love, comes from this same paper, as well.
Please check out our web page prohumanogenere.org for more information.
Thank you very much! AHSANTE!
VISIT OUR WEBPAGE www.tripsplusultra.com FOR AN INTERACTIVE REVIEW OF THE TRIPS PLUS ULTRA PROPOSAL!