Laws/legislation intellectual property

As noted in Section 3, Article 16 of the CBD indicates that access to, and transfer of, technology are essential elements of the objectives of the Convention. In Article 16.5, it is recognised that patents and other intellectual property rights may have an impact on implementation of the CBD and encouraged parties to ensure that such rights are supportive of and do not run counter to its [the CBD] objectives with the caveat subject to national legislation and international law . 

As a result of the national scope of many intellectual property laws, problems sometimes develop where inventions, such as biopharmaceuticals, are traded internationally. International trade can bring divergent national legislation into conflict. Countries that are net exporters of innovations protected by IPRs, such as the United States, the European Union, and Japan, advocate strongly in the international arena for the strengthening of national intellectual property laws and international harmonization of these laws [46]. Although international harmonization... 

The official goal of TRIPs is to reduce distortions and impediments to international trade posed by divergent national IPRs [49]. It presents a common minimum standard of IPRs for the adoption within national intellectual property laws of each WTO member country. The common standards are enforced by the WTO, which adjudicates disagreements between nations [50]. Each WTO member country retains the right to legislate more stringent IPR regimes [50]. 

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