What agenda for the review of TRIPS?: A sustainable development perspective

This briefing by the Center for International Environmental Law analyzes the need to rebalance the WTO's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) from a sustainable development perspective. It examines the outcomes of the Doha Ministerial Declaration, specifically regarding public health, the relationship between TRIPS and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and the protection of traditional knowledge, while highlighting the interlinkages between the TRIPS Council and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

• The TRIPS Agreement is criticized for being imbalanced and undermining sustainable development by shifting control of knowledge from consumers to producers and from Southern to Northern countries. This imbalance potentially harms the transfer of technologies, access to drugs, and the implementation of international environmental agreements like the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
• The Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health provides developing countries with more flexibility to interpret TRIPS in relation to health issues and protects least-developed country Members from being obliged to implement or enforce pharmaceutical patent rights under Sections 5 and 7 of Part II of the TRIPS Agreement until 1 January 2016.
• There are significant conflicts between the TRIPS Agreement and the CBD because TRIPS allows private patent rights to be granted over genetic resources subject to sovereign rights and does not require prior informed consent or benefit sharing for the use of genetic material or traditional knowledge in inventions.
• To prevent the illegal access of genetic resources and traditional knowledge, the author proposes amending Article 27.3b and 29 of the TRIPS Agreement to require the disclosure of the origin of genetic material and associated traditional knowledge.
• Traditional knowledge is characterized by features such as oral transmission, collective ownership, and a close relationship with the environment, making it poorly suited for existing IPR regimes. The document suggests that traditional knowledge is best protected through an effective sui generis system.
• The TRIPS Council and WIPO have overlapping work areas, particularly regarding patents and genetic resources. WIPO is pursuing a new patent agenda including the Patent Law Treaty (PLT) and the Substantive Patent Law Treaty (SPLT), while both bodies are examining the protection of traditional knowledge and the relationship between TRIPS and the CBD.

APA

Eugui, D. V. (n.d.). What agenda for the review of TRIPS?: A sustainable development perspective. Center for International Environmental Law. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/AgendaTrips_Summer02.pdf

Chicago

Eugui, David Vivas. What agenda for the review of TRIPS?: A sustainable development perspective. Center for International Environmental Law, n.d. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/AgendaTrips_Summer02.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Eugui |first1=David Vivas |title=What agenda for the review of TRIPS?: A sustainable development perspective |publisher=Center for International Environmental Law |url=https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/AgendaTrips_Summer02.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{euguindwhat, author = {Eugui, David Vivas}, title = {{What agenda for the review of TRIPS?: A sustainable development perspective}}, institution = {Center for International Environmental Law}, url = {https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/AgendaTrips_Summer02.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }