Exclusive study on operation of 31 bis of trips-with special reference to public health

Abstract

World wars brought economic depression resulting in the need to regulate the trade relationship among the international community. Such a need to regulate trade relationships among world states compelled them to sign the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) agreement. The initial stages of GATT did not have provisions to protect Intellectual Property Rights. There were international conventions to address the issues concerning Trade aspects of intellectual property. The international conventions were like the Paris convention for protecting an invention, Berne for Copyright, Madrid for Trademarks etc… Several rounds of GATT gave birth to the World Trade Organization in 1995. The World Trade Organization (WTO) planned to bring unification of Intellectual Property Laws and enacted a new multilateral agreement on Trade-related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). TRIPS are multifaceted agreements where many aspects of IPR are discussed. Article 31 bis of TRIPs agreement concerning public health will be critically analysed in this paper. Article 31 Bis was the result of the Doha declaration that deeply discussed the issue of Article 31 F and its gap in serving the countries that lack the manufacturing capacity to address their issues of accessibility and affordability to pharmaceutical products.