WATER ABLAZE - Patagonia Sin Represas

9.8 The TRIPS Agreement
Another agreement reached under the umbrella of the WTO is the
Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights
(TRIPS), which came into effect in 1995. It regulates at international
level those areas of law governing copyright, brand names, particular
flavours, licences, protection of company secrets, software patents
and numerous other areas of patent rights. The agreement dictates
its demands to all national legal systems, in order to ensure that
those measures and procedures intended to safeguard the rights on
intellectual property do not become barriers for “legal trade”. What is
meant by this, of course, is free trade according to the WTO’s neoliberal
policies. The mechanisms involved are similar to those of the GATS
agreement: the rules and regulations – and their interpretation – are
there to serve those nations with a strong economy and the interests
of powerful companies. All resolutions are binding for WTO member
states and will be implemented, if need be, by the use of sanctions.
Particularly controversial is the patentability of technical processes,
natural substances (e.g. traditional rice varieties) or geneticallymodified
seed because this makes it compulsory for millions of small
farms and businesses to pay charges to the patent-holder.
There are hardly any areas which have not been affected by the
recent spate of patent applications, almost all of which stem from
wealthy nations and companies based in these countries. The most
dangerous aspect of the TRIPS agreement is the vagueness of its
wording, which invites all maestros of interpretation to apply for
patents on the most ridiculous things such as natural substances found
in the neem tree, a medicinal plant which has been cultivated and
used in India for thousands of years. With reference to TRIPS, waterbottling
companies, for example, are applying for patents on “their”
brands, after extracting minerals from the water beforehand and then
adding their own minerals and trace elements.
The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), founded in
1967 and subsidiary organisation of the UN since 1974, is to some
extent the forerunner of the TRIPS agreement. Although still in
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