Free Trade 26: "Buy Local" and Protectionism, June 24, 2012
On IPR Abolition 17: Copyright by a Government Corporation, September 02, 2012
IPR and Medicines 24: Balancing Costly Innovation and Cheaper Drugs, March 20, 2012
The Department of Trade and
Industry (DTI) called for a public consultation on “One Country One Voice”
(OVOC) regarding the proposed EU-Philippines Free Trade Agreement (FTA) on
September 20, 2012. I read about the invitation last September 13 and quickly
confirmed my attendance.
Fearing that such proposed FTA
might contradict certain provisions of the Cheaper Medicines Law of 2008 or RA
9502, a joint statement was released by MeTA Philippines, Coalition for Health
Advocacy and Transparency (CHAT), Ayos na Gamot sa Abot-kayang Presyo (AGAP)
and the Fair Trade Alliance (FTA). Below are screen shots of portions of the eight-pages
position paper. I checked the websites/blog of AGAP, FTA and MeTA, it’s not
posted there.
Below are the
exchanges we have the past few days. Copy-pasting them
with no alteration, so pardon our French and whatever typo errors, just showing
the raw exchanges. I am adding some photos of the event that day.
A bit long, about
17 pages including images/photos, so grab your favorite snacky and enjoy the ride.
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September 20-21,
2012:
Hi Pau,
I am sorry that I did not read the
attached paper on the joint position of Meta-CHAT-FTA on this issue. I saw this
during the MeTA meeting yesterday as Gov Obet presented this. I spoke and
commented that the conclusions seem to be an over-reaction to the IPR issue on
medicines. Why?
I am not a lawyer but my understanding is that
a national legislation like RA 9502 which deals with amending the IP Code on
medicines has supremacy over whatever treaty that the Senate and the Executive
branch may enter into any country or block of countries. In this case, should
it be true that the proposed EU-PH FTA will have provisions extending
patents of drugs, I don't think it will have supremacy over RA 9502 and
hence, can not be implemented.
My feeling is that whatever TRIPS Plus
provisions will apply to other sectors -- patents on softwares and cell phone
applications, see the fight between Samsung and Apple for instance; copyrights
on music and movies, see the rampant counterfeiting of DVDs, albums, etc.; or
trademark infringement on the brand and logo of huge companies. I read in some
newspapers how some individuals caught stealing and using the trademark of
other companies so they can sell their copycats at high price. Even Kumon, the
tutorial school, its logo and trademark is being stolen by some entities and
they too teach "kumon education" and charge the same rate but pay
zero royalties to the original brand, and their style may just be a bogus and
inferior.
I still have to see the actual document, even
in its draft form, of the proposed PH-EU FTA pertaining to medicines. As Daisy
Cembrano of GSK said yesterday, after RA 9502, the innovator companies have
practically ceded many of their IPRs in the country.
