UNCTAD launched the Case Law Database: Intellectual Property and Public Health

On 16 December 2020, the Intellectual Property Unit of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) launched the Case Law Database: Intellectual Property and Public Health (IPP Case Law Database). 

The IPP Case Law Database results from “UNCTAD’s Intellectual Property Unit’s work for over a decade on public health ... [and] has been updated with the support of the South Centre”. 

The IPP Case Law Database gathers “summaries of notable judgments adopted by national or regional judicial organs of the members of the World Trade Organization”. The decisions were selected “based on the importance of judicial practices for a better understanding of the interface between intellectual property rights and access to medicines”. 

The summaries contain “the factual and legal issues as discussed in the relevant judgments … [as well as] additional information on the jurisprudence and the applicable laws … to help readers in other jurisdictions understand the context of each decision”. Thus, each judgment record includes the case summary, facts, legal issues, points of significance, keywords, and the link to the decision. 

The judgments are classified under the following categories and subcategories: 

1. Pre-grant patent flexibilities 

· Exclusions from patentability (8 decisions) 

· Patent claims interpretation (9 decisions) 

· Patentability criteria (14 decisions) 

· Patentable subject matter (invention) (9 decisions) 

2. Post-grant patent flexibilities 

· Exceptions to patent rights (8 decisions) 

· Exhaustion & parallel importation (2 decisions) 

· Non-voluntary licensing (3 decisions) 

3. Related issues 

· Drug Marketing Approval and Patents (3 decisions) 

· Enforcement (6 decisions) 

· Patent abuse and anti-competitive practices (14 decisions) 

· Pharmaceutical test data (3 decisions) 

· The right to health (2 decisions) 

Review the IPP Case Law Database here and here. 

Sources: UNCTAD and South Centre websites. 

Credit: Image by Jukka Niittymaa on Pixabay.