As the East African Community nears full revival, a bloc market covering five countries with a population of about 145 million people has emerged. But the member countries face another challenge: they have different levels of intellectual property rights protection.
The task before them is how to align existing different national laws and policies on intellectual property rights protection to cater to a new regional framework. Intellectual property laws in EAC, like most other laws, are a colonial heritage.
One of the tools prominently guiding this regulatory process is the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), introduced by the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1994.
The TRIPS agreement introduces global minimum standards for protecting and enforcing nearly all forms of IP rights, including those for patents. Pharmaceutical and health products and processes are protected by patents.
The EAC is strategising to implement the TRIPS treaty by setting up a joint structure. The initiative started eight years ago, and the results are packaged in a regional framework titled as “The Regional Intellectual Property Policy on the Utilisation of Public Health Related WTO-Trips Flexibilities and the Approximation of National Intellectual Property Legislation.”
Apart from Kenya, which is a developing country, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania are ranked as least developed countries (LDCs). Uganda and Tanzania have ignored a 2016 transition window and already provided a range of intellectual property protection measures under their respective national laws. Rwanda and Burundi, meanwhile, have adopted laws that largely reflect the flexibilities availed to LDCs under the TRIPS agreement.
With the TRIPS agreement, least developed countries have been exempted from the obligation to implement patent protection in the health sector. The exemptions from IP protection are under clearly defined conditions. They also permit the compulsory issuance of licences for the import, export and production of essential medicines.
The extension, which runs up to January 2016 or earlier if a country develops out of LDC status, is in recognition of LDCs’ special requirements, their economic, financial and administrative constraints, and the need for flexibility so that they can create a viable technological base.
WTO has twice postponed the deadline for LDCs to provide the WTO TRIPS Council as much information as possible on their individual priority needs for technical and financial assistance for implementing the TRIPS agreement clauses.
(Source: IP Watch)
