On 2 October 2020, India and South Africa submitted to the Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (“TRIPS”) of the World Trade Organization (“WTO”) a proposed waiver from the implementation, application and enforcement of intellectual property (“IP”) rights under the WTO TRIPS Agreement (“COVID Waiver”) insofar as these rights relate to the prevention, containment, and treatment of COVID-19.  In essence, the COVID Waiver would allow WTO Members to forgo some protections of IP rights set out in the TRIPS Agreement in the hope that this waiver could speed up the production of affordable medical products including COVID diagnostic kits, vaccines, medicines, personal protective equipment and ventilators.

The proposed COVID Waiver has divided the WTO Membership.  While a majority of WTO Members have expressed support for the COVID Waiver, some developed countries (such as the EU, Korea, Japan, Australia and Singapore) have expressed reservations as to whether the COVID Waiver is necessary and whether it would actually help achieve the aim that it is intended to serve.Continue Reading Tensions Between Consensus and Voting in WTO Decision-Making – Part II: The Proposed Waiver on TRIPS and COVID-19