<
https://www.techdirt.com/2022/06/22/too-little-too-late-wto-finally-eases-patent-rights-on-covid-vaccines/>
"In what definitely feels like a case of way too little, way too late, the WTO
last week
finally decided to grant the TRIPS waiver on COVID vaccines,
allowing others to make more of the vaccine without violating patent rights.
The WTO has long had this ability to issue a patent waiver as part of its
Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement. The
idea is that in an emergency, when patents or copyrights are getting in the way
of real harm, the WTO can say “hey, let’s grant a waiver to save people.”
You would
think that a global pandemic where people are dying would be an
obvious time to use such a waiver grant, but that’s because you’re not an
obnoxious IP maximalist who cares more about their precious monopoly rents than
the health and safety of the global populace. The big pharma and medical device
companies freaked out about the possibility of a waiver, and even worse,
Hollywood also flipped out about it, with their typical worry that
any proof
that removing an intellectual monopoly might be good for the world cannot be
allowed.
It took forever, but in May of last year (already a year and a half into the
pandemic), the US agreed to support the TRIPS waiver. This caused much gnashing
of teeth among the maximalists, and then it still took over a year before this
agreement was reached, and of course, now it’s both greatly watered down, and
very much too late to make much of a difference. But kudos Hollywood and pharma
lobbyists. You let thousands of people die, but you sure protected your IP.
Good work!"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
