INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS VS. HUMAN RIGHTS: A Brief Analysis

Human rights and intellectual property protection are two distinct fields that have largely evolved. First, the impacts of intellectual property rights on the realization of human rights such as the right to health have become much more visible following the adoption of the TRIPS Agreement. Second, the increasing importance of intellectual property rights has led to the need for clarifying the scope of human rights provisions protecting individual contributions to knowledge in the field of medical patent. Third, a number of new challenges need to be addressed concerning contributions to knowledge, which cannot effectively be protected under existing intellectual property right regimes.