by Marko Ulvila

Summary in English of
NIGD Discussion Paper 4/2004

Knowledge is the basis of all societies. Throughout history there have been contradictory tendencies towards knowledge. On the one hand, there is the democratic tradition where freedom and sharing are the main principles. This has been the dominant mode among local communities and in modern academic institutions. On the other hand, there is the tendency of monopolies. They have been exercised by states, religious institutions and more recently corporations. This model can be called feudal as it concentrates power and benefits to few. The neo-liberal era in politics and economics has reinforced the feudal tendencies in knowledge systems.

The set of international agreements on intellectual property rights (IPR) have become more important during the past decades. This has to do with the shifts in the modern societies where information technology and knowledge have become more and more dominant factors. Although information and knowledge lends itself to be shared freely as one does not loose it when giving away, the intellectual property regime has become imbalanced towards the interest of investors and traders at the expense of traditional knowledge and rights of the people.

The turning point in the IPR regime is the negotiation and ratification of the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement of the World Trade Organisation from 1994. This made the earlier copyright (Bern) and industrial rights (Paris) agreements part of the trade regime with sanction possibilities and therefore made them much more important. Moreover, the TRIPS agreement expanded the mandatory scope of patentable innovations to drugs and living organisms which has forces majority of the world's countries to change their legislation.

From the perspective of the majority of the humans, the impacts of the TRIPS agreement are most unfavourable. The requirement to joint the UPOV-plant breeders convention (or setting up a sui generis system) and allowing patents on genetically modified organisms will make efforts for food security more difficult as traditional knowledge and practices are undermined. In public health the requirement to set up product patents for drugs has closed the option of effective drug policy based on use of generic drugs. Scientific knowledge and applications such as computer software have become more and more propriatry and commercial and therefore out of reach of the majority.

The needed policy change would be to move from a corporate innovation system to a democratic innovation system in the fields that are essential to human welfare and survival. These include food and nutrition, public health and scientific knowledge. The needed changes are indicated in the table below:

Table: comparison of democratic and corporate system of innovation

Immediate steps needed would be the discontinuation of the TRIPS agreement, pursuing the proposed development agenda in the World Intellectual Property Organisation, removal of patents on essential drugs, removal of patentability of living organisms and the promotion of open content, standards and access.