Stiglitz- Patents, Profits, and People

Stiglitz proposals:

1. Allow different Intellectual Property laws for undeveloped, developing, and developed countries
-This might be a good reform, if the details of who counts as what level of development and what the differences in laws will be in different countries

2. Reduce length and breadth of patents
-Reducing length of patents to 10 years, or at least 15 would be reasonable.
20 years is just overboard. Technologies in medicine and other specific types of patents maybe could have even shorter lengths (perhaps 5yrs)
-Reducing breadth of patents is especially important. Also gene patents should not be given unless there’s a specific type of treatment, just identifying the gene shouldn’t count for anything.

3. Developed countries should provide patented medicines at cost to developing countries
-Developed countries should provide the patent holder with a limited royalty, but if there’s a need in developing countries, that doesn’t mean full market price.

4. Issue compulsory licenses when there is urgent need to broaden access to technology or medicines, allowing generic manufacturers to produce medicines at much lower prices
-for special cases in developing countries

5. Governments and foundations could provide a Guarantee Fund, pledging to spend a minimum amount of money if a new or more effective medicine is invented
-would there still be a need for this if we have the Innovation Fund?

6. Governments and foundations should provide an Innovation Fund, offering big rewards of monetary prizes based on the importance of the invention
-this would be great, but then the invention should be made available without patent restrictions. I suppose this for inventions that wouldn’t be very lucrative anyway, like malaria vaccines/medicines.

7. Have an international agreement recognizing traditional knowledge, and prohibiting bio-piracy
-People should still be allowed to innovate and use traditional knowledge for commercial purposes, but just not with the exclusive right to that knowledge

8. All countries, including the USA, must sign the biodiversity convention, guaranteeing biodiversity property rights
-if developing countries own potentially valuable biological organisms, they should be provided with the incentive to preserve that biodiversity through the chance to profit off any medicines developed using their biodiversity.

9. TRIPs should be reformed drastically; discussions over global standards for intellectual property should be removed from WTO and placed in a WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) to give developing countries a greater voice
-TRIPs definitely need reforming, but should we create WIPO?

10. developed countries should finance strong legal assistance for developing countries to help fight claims involving intellectual rights
-maybe through (mandatory?) contributions to either WTO or WIPO

11. NAFTA should repeal provision in Chapter 11 that requires government compensation to companies for regulation, even regulations protecting the environment and public health; countries should have right to protect environment, public health, and culture
-What type of crazy provision compensates industries for their own wrongdoing!?
-In addition to repealing this provision, perhaps NAFTA should establish a tribunal court to arbitrate on matters of inter-country disputes, with some increased level of uniformity in regulations among the 3 countries?