Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
JVnet Forum posting** - April 21, 2004
Ngoc and Trang
The TRIPS Agreement of WTO
Viet Nam is currently negotiating for joining the World Trade Organization (WTO). This is a very important step for Viet Nam, as it will help the country integrate in the global economy. Upon joining the WTO, Viet Nam will have to respect the agreements of WTO members, including the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, often called the TRIPS Agreement.
The text of this agreement can be downloaded in both .doc and .pdf forms from http://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/legal_e.htm (the TRIPS Agreement is the Annex 1C). We have a hard copy of this agreement in both English and Vietnamese. If you would like a copy, please contact us.
The TRIPS Agreement stipulates rules of intellectual property (IP) rights protection which all member countries have to respect. There are different types of IP, including inventions. In part 2 of the TRIPS Agreement, section 5 (articles 27-34) speaks specifically about patent protection of inventions.
Following are some explanations of patent protection according to TRIPS, excerpted from the document Understanding the WTO from the WTO website:
[Patents:
The agreement says patent protection must be available for inventions for at least 20 years. Patent protection must be available for both products and processes, in almost all fields of technology... Governments also exclude diagnostic, therapeutic and surgical methods...
... The agreement describes the minimum rights that a patent owner must enjoy. But it also allows certain exceptions. A patent owner could abuse his rights, for example by failing to supply the product on the market. To deal with that possibility, the agreement says governments can issue compulsory licences , allowing a competitor to produce the product or use the process under licence. But this can only be done under certain conditions aimed at safeguarding the legitimate interests of the patent-holder...
... An issue that has arisen recently is how to ensure patent protection for pharmaceutical products does not prevent people in poor countries from having access to medicines - while at the same time maintaining the patent system's role in providing incentives for research and development into new medicines. Flexibilities such as compulsory licensing are written into the TRIPS Agreement, but some governments were unsure of how these would be interpreted, and how far their right to use them would be respected.]
The US-VN bilateral trade agreement
This agreement's full name is Agreement between the United States of America and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam on Trade Relations. It was signed on July 13, 2000, and entered into force on December 10, 2001. You can read the text of this document on http://www.usvtc.org/BTA/usvtc_bta_text.htm, or download the official text in .pdf form from http://www.ustr.gov/regions/asia-pacific/regional.shtml. We have hard copies of this agreement in both English and Vietnamese. If you would like copies, please contact us.
This is an important agreement related to ARV access in Viet Nam, because many ARV medicines are based on inventions owned by US pharmaceutical companies. For example:
- D4T (stavudine) of Bristol-Myers Squibb
- Efavirenz of Merck
- Indinavir of Merck
- Ritonavir of Abbott
- Nelfinavir of Pfizer
JVNET readers only need to read chapter 2 of this bilateral trade agreement (BTA), which is about IP rights, and should focus on Article 7 (on patents). From our reading, the US-VN BTA's patent-related provisions seem similar to those in the TRIPS Agreement of WTO. However, we are not legal professionals, so we cannot fully understand the text. If you have another take on this, please share it with JVNET.
The US-VN BTA's transitional provisions require that all obligations related to patent protection (expressed in Article 7) must be fulfilled twelve months from the date of entry into force of the agreement. This means that starting from December 10, 2002, Viet Nam is supposed to implement these obligations with regards to inventions of US nationals.
These are just some initial results from our search. We welcome all comments and contributions from other JVNET readers. Please send emails to JVNET <jvnet@netnam.vn>.
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** JVnet, an email forum in Vietnam, was founded by Dr. Jamie Uhrig, currently moderated by Institute for Social Development Studies.
To post message on JVnet: send to jvnet@netnam.vn
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