Article 27. 3 (b) of TRIPS

Abstract

Abstract provided by author:

Developing countries, at the occasion of the 1999 WTO Ministerial Conference held in Seattle, USA, questioned the TRIPS mandatory requirement (Article 27. 3 (b)) that allows patents on biological material and plant varieties. They submitted that life forms should not be patentable as this would allow private monopolization of life and biological resources which would adversely affect the development, food security, the livelihoods of farmers and the environment. They submitted further that the sui generis system of plant protection be extended to protect intellectual property rights of the indigenous and farming communities, and that substances and processes that exist in nature are discoveries and not inventions and thus not patentable

This dissertation is an analysis of the above objections from four perspectives. Apart from the introduction, which defines intellectual property and patents in particular, chapter two is an overview of the TRIPS Agreement. Chapter three then discusses the law of patents as set by Article 27. 3 (b) and particularly looks at the requirements of patentability vis-à-vis life forms. The general theme that echoes throughout the research is a test on whether it could be safely concluded that biotechnology (life forms) could be patentable in terms of Article 27 of TRIPS, and if so, Chapter four looks at what constitutes a proper system of protection. The research goes on in Chapter five to discuss other important implications such as, whether traditional knowledge is knowledge worth protecting, and, if so, under what system of law it should be protected; the problem of patenting life forms from a competition perspective, which is an investigation on whether the patenting of life forms would lead to the private monopolization of life forms which would threaten the world food resource base as claimed by developing countries; and whether this lead to serious environmental consequences. Chapter six discusses Africa approach on effective sui generis systems of protection. Chapter seven contains conclusions and recommendations