[Infowarrior] - IP Commission: Cut Off WHO Funding If It Doesn't Make IP Protection Priority One

[Richard Forno]

IP Commission: Cut Off WHO Funding If It Doesn't Make IP Protection Priority One

from the if-you-haven't-got-your-health-IP,-you-haven't-got-anyt dept

The IP Commission Report on the "theft" of American IP is the gift that keeps on taking. We've already discussed the commission's suggestion that infringers' computers be loaded up with spyware and malware and the apparent "fact" that China has singlehandendly destroyed every IP-reliant industry in America. 

Hidden towards the bottom of the report is (yet another) terrible proposal, guided by the heavy hand of self-interest. It plainly spells out the commission's priorities: American IP above all else, even the health and well-being of other nations.

Recommend to Congress and the administration that U.S. funding to the World Health Organization (WHO) program budget in whole or in part be withheld until (1) the WHO’s process of certifying national regulatory agencies includes attestation that IP protection is an essential part of the regulatory evaluation process, and (2) the WHO refrains from prequalifying any product until the regulating agency of jurisdiction demonstrates and certifies that it does not violate IP rights... 

The U.S. government has leverage at the WHO chiefly because of its financial support, which consists of annual “means tested” contributions to the WHO’s program budget and “voluntary” contributions whose total value is about $350 million. This support from the United States can be a carrot or a stick to influence the WHO’s actions.

So, if the WHO puts health ahead of American IP holders, the US should just cut off its contributions to the organization, and indirectly, the countries it assists. One would think that the "regulatory evaluation process" would be primarily concerned with ensuring new drugs and medical technology do more good than harm, healthwise. The possibility of IP infringement probably doesn't even cross the radar of the WHO. That job belongs to other agencies. 

But the commission ties IP enforcement and worldwide health together, forcing one to rely on the other by linking US monetary contributions to protection of American IP. The WHO would now be required to make sure rights holders aren't being cut out of a market before attempting to solve larger problems -- like halting an outbreak before it becomes an epidemic.

< -- >

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130526/19422123216/ip-commission-cut-off-who-funding-if-it-doesnt-make-ip-protection-priority-one.shtml

---
Just because i'm near the punchbowl doesn't mean I'm also drinking from it.