Monday, 18 January 2010

IP Border Measures

Patricia Covarrubia January 18, 2010 3 comments:

Last week the blog brought you some news regarding counterfeit medicines. In the same article, it was posted a moot question enquiring generic medicines and the scope of IP legislation when the medicines were placed in other countries.

Thanks to Xavier Seuba , the IP Tango blog is now aware of a working paper which examines the nature of this situation (the paper was commissioned by the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) and written by Xavier himself). While the paper, titled “Border Measures Concerning Goods Allegedly Infringing Intellectual Property Rights: The Seizures of Generic Medicines in Transit”, focuses and analyses the EC Regulations, it is indeed of help for the Latin American countries. This is so, because the document studies the territorial nature of IPRs as well as the WTO obligations and the TRIPS agreement and of course the matter of free trade.

I do not doubt that the paper as such is good material for those of you who work in this area. I do indeed recommend the article and you can benefit from it here.

Patricia Covarrubia

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Adam

AUTHOR

18 January 2010 at 16:39 delete

Thanks for posting this. FYI, there's a more general analysis of the situation, with a focus on Europe, in "The regs don't work: WTR examines 'unsatisfactory' EU border measures" - click here: http://www.worldtrademarkreview.com/daily/detail.aspx?g=dd5c2145-cd73-43ec-80d9-c1b233726162

Adam Smith
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Anonymous

AUTHOR

21 January 2010 at 09:41 delete

While readers may have some sympathy for the generics industry in India that bumps into patents in Europe as regards non-counterfeit pharmaceuticals in transit, the problem with the legal approach advocated in the article is that it would also provide a free pass for counterfeit goods that deceive and harm consumers and threaten the health and life of patients.

Do we really want to allow people outside Europe to die as a result of counterfeit medicines shipped via Europe merely because we in Europe would switch over to an attitude that we couldn't care less if the destination of the goods is some country outside Europe?

And how about the EU market itself: if transit is no longer scrutinized, would counterfeit goods still be stopped in the Antwerp harbour if the destination is Germany?

Patricia Covarrubia

AUTHOR

21 January 2010 at 11:12 delete

I do have to agree with your view. While the blog focuses in IP matters, in some occasions when we post counterfeits 'wines, liquors and medicines' we mention the health issues that this problem brings. Certainly we cannot turn a blind eye to this situation.