<incom> Massive Attack on Brazil's IPR Policies

[Soenke Zehle]

[via A2k]

From: Volker Grassmuck <vgrass at rz.hu-berlin.de>

Here is a new consignment of Mr. Kogan's crusade against Brazil (and
the EU) undermining US-American interests and for strong IPRs as the
way to Sustainable Development:

Lawrence A. Kogan, Brazil's IP Opportunism Threatens U.S. Private
Property Rights, (6 Feb 07), apparently forthcoming in: University of
Miami Inter-American Law Review, Vol. 38:1,
http://www.itssd.org/Publications/IAL105-II(frompublisher)%5B2%5D.pdf

The Institute for Trade, Standards and Sustainable Development
(ITSSD), Providing an informed, reasoned, and dispassionate voice to
the global public debate.®

Here is the press release on the article in which "Mr. Kogan
questions whether "these same bandits will strike during the upcoming
April 2007 EU-US summit, a primary goal of which is to bridge
transatlantic chasms in IP regulatory law."
http://www.itssd.org/pdf/TheGreatBrazilianIPRobberyII.pdf

And here are some quotes from the 140 pages paper:

The Government of Brazil, however, has assumed a leadership role in
international fora by promoting a new but highly controversial global
framework that calls for the current high technology, knowledge and
information-based digital era to become `universally accessible,´
`open source,´ and essentially free of charge to developing
countries. Brazil, along with a growing chorus of developing nations,
activists, and self-proclaimed new social and environmental thinkers,
has alleged that this new paradigm is predicated upon an expanded
notion of sustainable development (SD) that eschews strong IPRs.

Besides anti-market, anti-private property and anti-WTO advocates,
there is also a vocal group of American self-proclaimed
multilateralists who believe that this is necessary in order to
prevent the emergence of extreme economic, scientific, technological
and social disparities and popular backlashes against globalization
that will serve to threaten international peace and security.

In other words, the `enlightened´ notion of sustainable development,
originally articulated almost twenty years ago, has since been
effectively hijacked, distorted and propagandized into a negative
anti-market, anti-private property and anti-WTO doctrine that focuses
only on the flaws, rather than the strengths, of the established
international order.

The Government Lula ... actually operated behind the scenes to help
craft a new version of the 1970´s New International Economic Order
(NIEO) that endeavors to undermine exclusive private property rights
and the rule of law.

During the past seven years, the Brazilian Government, prodded by
activists and supported by the WHO, has repeatedly threatened to
`take´ the private IPRs of OECD life science companies operating in
Brazil (via issuance of compulsory licenses) for an ostensible
`public use´ without paying `just compensation.´  ... It is believed,
however, that Brazilian generic drug makers and corrupt Brazilian
politicians, rather than the poor and HIV-infected people of Brazil,
primarily benefit from such intimidation and extortion-like
activities.

Of even greater concern, however, is the influence that Brazil´s
continued anti-IP activities has had on the thinking of other
emerging and developing countries, and the impact that it will have
on future U.S. international competitiveness.

Brazil and other developing countries that have become dissatisfied
with the TRIPS and WIPO agreements and the American capitalist
economic model of `risk and reward,´ which serves as the basis for
the current international IP framework, are now employing, with the
assistance of well-funded global civil society (activist NGOs), a
strategy known as `regime shifting.´

Brazil Actively Promotes a New International Paradigm of `Open
Source´ / `Universal Access´ to Knowledge

Brazil´s Efforts at the World Intellectual Property Organization

On September 29, 2004, shortly following the commencement of the
special session, a group of European socialist-minded open source
advocates and civil society activists submitted their own WIPO
proposal, otherwise known as the Geneva Declaration on the Future of
World Intellectual Property Organization.

In conclusion, the `open source methods´ paradigm provides a highway
for assembling the anti-private property, anti-IP, antifree market
and anti-globalization troops to mount a prolonged attack against the
established international economic and legal order.

BRAZIL MUST STOP UNDERMINING U.S. PRIVATE
PROPERTY RIGHTS

While it may be understandable that a lack of natural and/or human
capital resources may give rise to a national sense of inadequacy,
insecurity, and urgency, such feelings, if unchecked, could
nevertheless devolve into something much more harmful.  ... However,
such practices should neither continue nor be justified forever. Once
developing countries rise to become emerging economies, such as
Brazil, they must grow up and evolve!

Volker

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