1. Intellectual Property Rights
Intellectual property rights are a new product of 19th century, where the contribution of capitalist companies is at its peak, therefore any invention or technological advancement is closed for general exploitation with the help of patents and other concepts of intellectual property rights. Intellectual property rights are actually rights of any entity who can guard its property of knowledge for reuse and exploitation. These intellectual property rights give those capitalist players the mean to restrict the use of their entity whether developed in-house or purchased from some one.
World Intellectual Property Organization now more accurately as world trade organization ensure it at international level that each and every state must obey the terms and conditions of intellectual property rights. In every country there are laws that guard these intellectual property rights in order to restrict the use of any specific idea under the ownership of a corporate.
The laws that govern intellectual property rights are called copy right laws and patent laws. Furthermore, these laws have specific impact on societies; the most effected area is of medicines and health care. Due to the patents on any specific medicine, local companies are not able to remanufacture the medicine just because they do not have the proper rights to produce the product of a specific formula. Because the formula is patent by law therefore, organizations who own the rights can only use it, this how the medicine or any device become exceeding expensive and in some cases unaffordable even though the patient is suffering fatally. Expensive Treatment of AIDS in South Africa is an excellent example of intellectual property rights conflicting with public interest.
2. Conflict Of Public Interest With Intellectual Property Rights
As intellectual property rights embedded in patent and copy right laws ordains everybody to respect the right of the ownership of any specific entity or multiple entities in it, therefore, one cannot reproduce or work on the formula, device, or any other idea if it protected by patent. However, health care and medication is the basic necessity of every body, but due to these rights public interest is at stake.
Myriad a US based corporation, filed a case in June 2001 against few hospitals in Canada. Actually those Canadian hospitals were ignoring the patents of Myriad in carrying test to identify genetic limitation to breast cancer. As a consequence of the charge, the patients from then had to go to Myriad for this test and they were amounted five times more of what was charged in local hospitals of provinces in Canada.
The EU Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive is another case on the same; it is about enforcement of intellectual property rights. Based on the same directive, French MEP Janelly Fourtou placed the bill frontward for execution. According to this bill music software industries can detect people sharing their software at home and this bill will grant police this authority to arrest people from home doing so. Janelly Fourtou’s husband is actually the executive of Vivendi Universal; furthermore Vivendi Universals have the possession of numerous soft applications all music, games and entertainment. It might be for the interest of VU but not for the people in general because spying on people personal life is equal to confronting public interests.
It is crystal clear by the above examples that intellectual property rights conflict with public interests in many realities.
The article is written by SM Waqas Imam, he is an engineer in industrial and manufacturing engineering from NEDUET.