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Debating the WTO TRIPS Waiver for COVID

Oct. 28, 2021 | 3:45-5pm EDT

Panel cohosted by PIJIP and Committee on International Intellectual Property, American Branch of the International Law Association

Intellectual property and health has risen again to the top of the global trade agenda and to front-page attention. In October 2020, India and South Africa proposed a waiver of the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights as needed to promote the prevention, treatment and containment of COVID. A legal and policy debate has ensued over whether the waiver can help global treatment aims. The U.S. endorsement of text-based work on the waiver proposal indicates that it will feature strongly in the agenda of the WTO Ministerial Conference in Geneva in November 2021. Sponsored by the Committee on International Intellectual Property, this panel brings together leading intellectual property experts to explore the process and politics of the waiver proposal as it makes its way toward possible adoption.

Host institutions: Committee on International Intellectual Property, American Branch of the International Law Association; Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property 

Panelists

• Sean Flynn, Director, Â鶹ÊÓƵ Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property (co-chair)
• Prof. Peter K. Yu, Texas A&M University School of Law (co-chair)
• Prof. Srividhya Ragavan, Texas A&M University School of Law 
• Prof. J. Janewa OseiTutu, Florida International University College of Law 
• Prof. Sharon K. Sandeen, Mitchell Hamline School of Law 
• Prof. Joshua D. Sarnoff, DePaul University College of Law
• Antony Taubman, Director, Intellectual Property, Government Procurement and Competition Division, World Trade Organization

Comments: Prof. Frederick M. Abbott, Florida State University College of Law