Australia Criticized Over TRIPs

A recently-published Australian Industry Commission report on the pharmaceutical sector has lent support to criticisms from the USA and the European Union that current Australian patent law does not permit the country to meet the obligations imposed on it by the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights treaty of the World Trade Organization.

The main area of contention is Article 39:3 of the TRIPs agreement, which states that test data submitted by manufacturers to regulators as part of marketing approval applications should be protected against unfair commercial use. Australian law currently provides no period of data exclusivity, and federal government agencies differ as to what this means under the TRIPs requirements. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade says that Australia must amend its legislation to meet international requirements, while the Attorney General's Department believes that Article 39:3 of TRIPs imposes no extra obligation on Australia.