Toward a new era of intellectual
property: capacity building from the
bottom up
E. Richard Gold
President, The Innovation Partnership
Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, McGill University
Building and Maintaining Sustainable Global Health Partnerships
May 8th, 2009
Outline
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The problem
A new methodology
Our results
Conclusion
The problem
• The world’s medicine cabinet is emptying as the
pipeline of new biomedicines is drying up
• The costs of research and development have increased
as the easy to find medicines have been found and
regulatory standards rise
• Developing country concerns over access to medicines
and to other technologies have pushed international
organisations such as the WTO, WIPO and WHO to
adopt development-friendly positions on IP
The problem
• Controversies over patents in health care and
agriculture have soured the public’s attitudes
toward patents
– Launch of a lawsuit against South Africa over access
to HIV/AIDS medications by 39 pharmaceutical
companies in 1998
– Crisis resulting from Myriad Genetics’s patents over
two breast and ovarian cancer gene
– Fears over GMOs and patent lawsuit against farmers
The problem
• Developing countries express concern over the
imposition of high-income country patent
standards on them
– Yet developing countries often surpass the
requirements that international treaties impose on
them
• International treaties provide countries, not
communities, with control over natural
resource access
– These countries often do not protect the
communities that live there
The problem
• Researchers too often conduct their research
and fail to involve communities or come back to
explain their research findings
• Many developing country research institutions
think that they can attract major financing by
commercialising their inventions
• Indigenous groups are led to believe that their
knowledge can also be translated into income
A new methodology
• We developed a set of multiple, overlapping research
methods
– Development of a model the encompasses all disciplines and
perspectives
– Collection of both quantitative and qualitative data across 18
countries over one decade in biotechnology
– Preparation of case studies from both developed and
developing countries looking at different aspects of the
innovation process
– 7 international workshops of experts on three continents
– Supplemented by legal, econometric, economic and business
analyses
Our results
• We identified 6 themes from our research
– Trust
– Better communications
– Creating new models of collaboration
– Building and maintaining scientific infrastructures
– Developing new analytical tools
– Data and metrics
Trust
• Our case studies revealed that a lack of trust
undermined the effective use of IP
– Indigenous peoples often mistrust governments
that are charged with protecting their interests
environment
– It prevented Brazilian traditional communities from
being able to work with researchers
– It prevented an effective response in Canada to
ensure access to medicines
Capacity Building
• Recommendation: Governments should support
independent, non-governmental and non-industry
organisations to engage indigenous communities at a
grass-roots level in training related to a host of issues
around access and benefit sharing agreements,
contracting and intellectual property
• To implement: We worked with Mam people in
Huehuetenango, Guatemala to create a capacity
building program on intellectual property in relation to
their genetic resources and traditional knowledge
Approach to Capacity
Building
• We work in partnership with communities, on their
terms, and on those subjects that they choose
• We educate our partnering communities about the
relative advantages and disadvantages of pursuing
different strategies
• We aim to build decision-making capacity in a way that
is tailored to meet our partners’ particular needs and
sensitive to varying economic and cultural realities
• We train broad community as well as leaders to leave
expertise behind
Scientific infrastructure
• There is a growing body of research occurring within developing
countries
• This research usually is not taken further because of lack of skill,
lack of funding and lack of laboratories
• Africa and other regions face a brain drain
• A critical problem is lack of high-speed Internet access
• Developed and developing country universities can build
programmes to train scientists at home
• A key missing ingredient is knowledge about how to use the
intellectual property system to further dissemination and
development
IP Management Training
• Recommendation: Governments, industry and public
institutions should sponsor capacity building programs
on technology transfer and IP management for lowand middle-income countries and for aboriginal
communities in high-income countries
• Implementation: In June-August 2007, we, together
with partners in Kenya, developed a training program
for 25 senior scientists on intellectual property
management
IP Management Training
• Training engaged local experts and adapted to
research and conditions in Eastern Africa
• Training included
– Basic understanding of intellectual property systems
(patents, copyright, plant variety protection, genetic
resources)
– Basic licensing and transactions in university/research
institution technology
– Basic concepts in establishing an IP strategy
• Students returned to their home institutions to
conduct an IP audit
IP Management Training
• As a result of this training, most of the participants
became involved with developing their IP policy or
establishing a technology transfer office
• Through the interaction of the participants and the
local trainers, we left behind a network of experts who
can mutually support one another
• We have been asked to conduct more advanced
training
Conclusion
• There is a significant knowledge deficit with respect to
intellectual property and its implementation in lowand middle-income countries
• Capacity building must engage local actors and aim not
only on increasing knowledge, but leaving a
sustainable network in place
• Capacity building can only occur if local communities
want it and set the agenda
• Learning goes both ways
Richard Gold
rgold@theinnovationpartnership.org
richard.gold2@mcgill.ca