Compulsory Licenses as means to Access Patented Platform Technologies in TB and Malaria
Abstract
Patents are issued to protect inventions and innovations and to serve as incentive for more such
activity and as consideration for disseminating the invention/innovation to the wider public. This
is expected to lead to larger quantity of the product/service which the patent contains so that the
availability would be more and wide spread. It would also encourage competition. Hence the
main purpose of issue of patent is encouraging dissemination of knowledge and wider use. If it
really happens in the field it is very good. But does it really happen? The situation in the field at
times is to exclude than include more people as users of knowledge embedded in a patent. This
can happen by broad patents, refusal to license the patent etc. This can lead to monopolies, high
prices, slow or no progress on follow-on research, reduced number of new products in the market
etc. Ultimately in the case of biomedical research it can lead to reduced access to health care
products which are vital. In this area especially after the advent of biotechnology there is a
unusual increase in patenting activity by the academia and industry which includes upstream
patenting which is the main concern of this study.
Description
Annexures & Appendices included
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Bulletin or Newsletter
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Text
Keywords
COMPULSORY LICENSE, TUBERCULOSIS, MALARIA, ACCESS TO MEDICINE