Starting
from 2001, every year, the 26th of April—the
date on which the Convention establishing World Intellectual
Property Organization (WIPO) originally entered into force
in 1970—is observed as the World Intellectual Property
(IP) Day. The aim behind the observance of the day is to "to
raise awareness of how patents, copyright, trademarks and
designs impact on daily life; increase understanding of how
protecting IP rights helps promote creativity and innovation;
celebrate creativity, and the contribution made by creators
and innovators to the development of societies across the
globe; and encourage respect for the IP rights of others."
And each year is dedicated to promote one IP-related theme.
If it was "encouraging creativity" in 2007, it is
"celebrating innovation and promoting respect for IP",
this year.
However,
celebrating innovation and promoting respect for IP is not
without its fair share of controversy, especially when it
comes to drug patents. For pharmaceutical industry, innovation
and research provide the sustenance. However, innovation and
research can flourish only in an environment which guarantees
protection and incentive. In other words, research and development
need huge investments, which can be attracted only when there
are prospects for long-term returns. And, such an environment
can be created only when there is a strong IP regime in place.
But
there has been a sustained global campaign led by public health
activists from the developing countries, such as Brazil, India,
Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Cambodia and Thailand, to undermine
the present IP regime. These activists are of the opinion
that drug patents only serve to increase the costs of important
medicines for the world's poor, and so seek to break the monopoly
of pharmaceutical giants over life-saving medicines. They
argue that the current patent regime only helps in facilitating
control of innovations by the pharmaceutical companies from
the developed world and allows them to exert control over
the patented drugs. |
