HUMAN RIGHTS

Human Rights Claims Have Had Little Impact In Terms Of Substantive Law, Procedure Or Levels Of Damages In The Field Of Health Law

Human Rights Claims Have Had Little Impact In Terms Of Substantive Law, Procedure Or Levels Of Damages In The Field Of Health Law

Introduction

The rights to life and liberty, to freedom of expression and opinion, to participation in government and choice of employment, and to private property and general security in one's person—these are just some of the rights that people around the globe have come to recognize as human rights—those rights that all individuals have simply by virtue of their very humanity; rights that we expect all societies to guarantee to their citizens irrespective of a person's race, religion, gender, sexuality, or ethnicity; rights that we should have no matter where we live or who we are(Ishay 2004, 41). Understood as universal and inalienable, human rights have come to represent a common standard, a set of international norms against which we measure the actions of governments and the practices of communities. They have come to function as the grounds on which we challenge particular policies and actions of states and the basis upon which we demand change or imagine a different, better future(Ignatieff 2001, 74). With all that they do, with all that we expect from them, it is not surprising that human rights are cherished the world over.

Substantive Patent Law

After adoption by a Diplomatic Conference on 1 June 2000, the Treaty on the Patent Law Treaty (PLT), which harmonizes and streamlines procedures for patent applications and national and regional patent, the need to harmonize Patent Law beyond procedures led the Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP) of WIPO to undertake work in this area(Hunt 2007, 41).

In November 2000, the SCP at its fourth session , decided that the first draft provisions of a future legal instrument should be primarily focused on issues directly related to the grant of patents, in particular the definition of state of the art, novelty, inventive step (non-obviousness), industrial applicability (utility), the drafting and interpretation of claims and the adequacy of disclosure of the invention(Hart 2001, 66). The SCP further agreed that other issues of substantive patent law, such as first-file versus first-inventor, the publication of applications after a period of 18 months and 'post-grant opposition would be discussed later.

At its fifth session in May 2001, the CPS has reviewed a first draft Treaty on the Substantive Patent Law Treaty (SPLT) together with draft Regulations and guidelines for practice. Besides the six aforementioned issues addressed in the draft, the SCP discussed the interface between the draft SPLT, a hand, and the PLT and the PCT, on the other hand, as the question of appropriateness to limit the scope of the draft SPLT to the criteria of patentability and validity, discarding issues patent infringement.

Health Developments Affecting the Enjoyment of Human Rights

An analysis of the effect of certain scientific and technological developments in the field of health on the ...