2026-04-15T21:17:10Z https://verfassungsblog.de/oai/repository/

oai:verfassungsblog.de/55745 2020-12-31T11:13:18Z posts

http://dx.doi.org/10.17176/20201231-201835-0 https://verfassungsblog.de/speaking-of-solidarity/ Speaking of Solidarity - The TRIPS Agreement and COVID-19 Dalkilic, Evin Terhechte, Jörg Philipp eng 2020-12-31 electronic resource text/html ddc:342 COVID 19 Global Justice patents vaccination WTO Verfassungsblog Verfassungsblog--2366-7044 CC BY-SA 4.0 Today the official deadline for members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to submit a report to its General Council on a waiver proposal expires. This waiver would allow WTO members not to comply with certain obligations of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) for a limited amount of time in order to be able to effectively prevent, contain and treat COVID-19. For now, members have failed to take this first step towards a temporary suspension of TRIPS obligations but they agreed to continue the discussions beyond today's deadline. Nonetheless, the proposal highlights that intellectual property rights can not only act as an obstacle to global and just access to vaccines and medical equipment but also that the exisiting legal framework is inadequate to tackle crises like the COVID-19 pandemic.