Global patent

For more detail on what would be needed to arrive at a global patent, please click here.

Many will say that having a global patent is good for the rich innovators and, of course, it would be. That is why more harmonization in relation to patents is always in the mind of the developed countries in the international arena. It would be easier for them to protect their inventions, but it would also make it easier for those innovators from emerging economies to access the global reward. More harmonization up to the level of a global patent would make things much easier, and it would be good for all, provided a just system like the one proposed by TRIPS PLUS ULTRA were implemented. Nonetheless, as things are right now, the developing world would never accept it. They distrust patents and any advance of TRIPS (these countries typically do not innovate and still most of them pay, in their own sometimes deficient way, for the technology). Given the inequity of a 20-year-long patent system this is in a way understandable.

With TRIPS PLUS ULTRA this could change, because with it the burden of innovation would be shared in accordance with each country´s economic capacity. It would be great for innovators in the developing world (even though there are few for now), to have easy and cheap access to the whole of the reward the system produces for innovators.

If both sides were to arrive at an agreement on applying TRIPS PLUS ULTRA, many other issues could be agreed upon (meaning more harmonization). An overhaul of the system could be carried out leading to something that has always been seen as impossible: the global patent. The issue has not been academically advanced that far, and it may not be wise to do so, yet. Nonetheless, it´s worth noticing its potential. Under TRIPS PLUS ULTRA, a more efficient system could be envisioned. International cooperation is all that is needed, and it could be achieved with TRIP PLUS ULTRA.

In such a scenario, litigation cost, filing cost, etc. could reduce globally. The international system could become more effective in relation to enforcement (e.g. an office of the TRIPS Council at the WTO could act as a sort of prosecutor for lack of compliance instead of the ineffective country-to-country system we currently have at the WTO). In the current international scenario, regarding patents, the middle ground is TRIPS PLUS ULTRA. Around it many other agreements could follow.