Developed countries possessing modern technology are constantly attempting to safeguard their discoveries and invention rights through intellectual property protection laws.
This has led various countries around the world to adopt firm measures to protect these rights, especially after many countries had joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
In principle, advanced countries are entitled to protect their intellectual property rights and inventions, which cost them large sums of money. Average expenditure on scientific research amounted to 3 or 4 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) of these countries. However, developing countries spend nothing compared to what developed countries spend on scientific research, including countries with scientific and technological expertise.
Humanitarian aspect
Nevertheless, it cannot rule out the humanitarian aspect of such an approach that is getting tough increasingly while it is implemented within the framework of the WTO.
After the establishment of the WTO, countries that do not abide by the intellectual protection property laws are punished.
Prior to the creation of the WTO, developing countries used to produce whatever counterfeit commodities and products they required.
The adoption of firm measures with regard to intellectual property protection remains justifiably affixed with regard to luxurious and leisure products, such as electronics, clothes, watches, and bags. However, the intellectual property protection does not seem to be so justified with products related to humanitarian and healthcare purposes, such as food products, medicines and anti-contagious disease immunisations and vaccines.
Simply because millions of people, especially children, will lose their lives if these products are not available in the market due to deprive a country from producing them.
If rich developing countries have the financial ability to buy medical supplies and the rights to produce them, poor developing countries in the Asian, African and South American continents that cannot afford the expenses of purchasing such products due to their high cost on one hand, and the high volume of purchases due to population density on the other. This is beside their suffering from contagious diseases and lack of health-care services.
Shortages
For example, medicines sold at pharmacies in countries such as Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, are mostly imported from neighbouring countries, such as India, without which these countries would suffer from a severe shortage of medicines.
These countries would rarely import from western countries, since there are medicine factories in neighbouring countries. This scenario can also be seen very often in many developing countries in Africa and Asia.
Hence, the firm implementation of intellectual property laws under the umbrella of the WTO which may impose penalties on violating countries would lead to deteriorating the health situation in poorer countries, the spread of contagious diseases and lack of necessary vaccinations for children.
Supporting this theory was the most recent media hype that followed the outbreak of swine flu pandemic in 2009, after pharmaceutical companies monopolised the market to produce the vaccine for the H1N1 virus.
These companies achieved profits of billions of dollars by selling the vaccine to rich countries. Meanwhile, poor countries watched as their fate was hanging in the balance. The "virus was fatal", according to the media that cooperated with the pharmaceutical manufacturers, who were not completely innocent. This is the same case with the World Health Organisation (WHO) which was involved as well, because it blew the effects of the pandemic out of proportion in the media.
Therefore, it is a must to differentiate between into two types of intellectual property rights. The first type pertains to luxurious and leisure products whose owners must be stringently protected.
The second type is essential products that must not be categorised as merely profitable commodities while ignoring its humanitarian aspects, especially when it is linked to the deaths of many women and children in poor developing countries.
Dr Mohammad Al Asoomi is a UAE economic expert.
