The legal issues vary, but there are three common themes in these Special 301 cases. Third, the aim is to overturn national legislation allowing governments to give priority to affordable medicine for the poor over the patent rights of drugs companies. All of which raises some dis- turbing questions about world trade rules and public health. Ultimately, patents are a con- tract between inventors and the rest of society. Inventors are rewarded for the commercial risk they take with a temporary monopoly, lasting 20 years un- der WTO rules, during which they have the right to sell their inventions at whatever price they choose.
Governments have to balance potential conflicts between the public good and private monopoly.
The wrong balance is being struck. This year 11 million people in developing countries will die from preventable in- fectious diseases. More stringent patent protection threatens to make such medi- cines even less affordable. The facts speak for them- selves. It is bad enough that the world s most powerful in- dustrial lobby has adopted such harsh standards.