The Wto, Intellectual Property and Aids

Abstract

The TRIPS Agreement establishes minimum norms for the protection of intellectual property rights. In certain fields, especially the pharmaceutical, it provides for an important degree of flexibility that the southern countries may be able to use to their own benefit. However, these countries frequently do not know how to take advantage of this flexibility, choosing instead to rely on the intellectual property criteria adopted by the northern countries. In other cases, this flexibility is insufficient to avoid problems in access to medications, as is the case for AIDS treatments.