India coaxes WTO to take a stand on TRIPS

Stressing on the urgency of the matter, India nudged the World Trade Organization (WTO) members to waive off the implementation of certain provisions of the TRIPS Agreement w.r.t. the prevention, containment or cure of COVID-19. This proposal was first flagged off by India and South Africa in October 2020.

“We are not against IP rights ….When we talk about a temporary waiver in IPR, it should not be judged as we are against IPRs in perpetuity…Time is the essence, that if we are not delivering in couple of quarters, larger damage is going to happen in the world,” argued Brajendra Navnit, Indian Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the WTO. He added that in the past 7 months, the proposal has garnered the support of more than 100 countries.

The agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights or TRIPS is a multilateral agreement on intellectual property (IP) rights. It encompasses categories such as copyright, industrial designs, patents and protection of undisclosed information or trade secrets. It dates back to January 1995.