Intellectual Property and Global Health

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 7
• Convenor: Dr Henrique Carvalho
• Assessment: a 4000-word research essay (100%)

This module will enable you to understand, analyse and critique the role that intellectual property law plays in delivering global health outcomes. We will provide you with social, economic and political perspectives that enable critical reflection on intellectual property law, evaluating the relationship between private property and public health. The initial focus of study will be on the role of intellectual property in innovation, manufacture and access to pharmaceuticals. The scope will then broaden to situate intellectual property within international legal frameworks on food security, climate change and indigenous rights, and its specific engagement with international human rights law. Through a case study bringing together key learning objectives, we will consider whether the international intellectual property legal system is effective in meeting global health needs.

Indicative syllabus

• The relationship between private property and public health
• The international law system: between intellectual property law rights and human rights?
• The role of the patent system and know-how protection
• The role of the trademark system
• Case study on the pharmaceutical industry and access to medicines
• Plant-breeders' rights and food security
• Intellectual property and the protection of the environment
• Case study on bioprospecting
• Post-colonial perspectives on intellectual property and the delivery of non-Western health solutions
• Preparing for the next global pandemic

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• evaluate the relationship between the international intellectual property law and the delivery of global health
• analyse the way in which the relationship between private property and public health is mediated through the intellectual property system
• understand the specific functions and impacts of different forms of intellectual property including patents, data exclusivity, trade secrets, trademark, copyright and plant breeders’ rights
• critically address the relationships between regulatory bodies and market actors, and their strategic effects on the application of intellectual property rights with respect to health
• examine the role of international intellectual property law in relation to global health, with a focus on access to medicines
• locate intellectual property requirements within international environmental treaties and its significance with respect to food security and climate change
• consider the issue of bioprospecting in the context of traditional knowledge and indigenous perspectives on intellectual property rights and health
• critique the intersection of intellectual property law and human rights law in meeting international legal obligations to the right to health and health-related rights.