earticle

영어

This article focuses on the issue of compulsory license of pharmaceutical patents. Article 31 of the TRIPS Agreement allows WTO Member countries compulsory licenses of patented inventions in certain special cases such as extreme emergency. Several countries with severe HIV/AIDS problems, such as Thailand and South Africa attempted to use the compulsory licenses of pharmaceutical patents. The U.S. governments, aggressively lobbied by U.S. pharmaceutical firms, gave political pressure on the Thai and South African governments, insisting that those compulsory licenses were violating article 27 of the TRIPS Agreement, which prohibits Member countries from discriminating field of technologies in patenting inventions. However, human rights groups both in and out of the U.S. gave political pressure on the Clinton Administration, managing to win the victory over the U.S. pharmaceutical firms. After failing to limit the use of compulsory licenses of pharmaceutical patents by developing countries, the U.S. pharmaceutical industry has seemed to give up the TRIPS regime, but chose bilateral negotiation to achieve their goals. This article tries to give some suggestions how to deal with the expected U.S. trade pressures when Korea chose to determine compulsory licenses of pharmaceutical patents.