Licenças compulsórias no contexto da pandemia de COVID-19

Abstract

Patents are temporary monopolies guaranteed by the state to economic agents who, in theory, have brought an innovation to the market. In a globalized world, the creation of international cooperation organizations, the member countries of the WTO, signed the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, which guarantees that adequate standards of intellectual property protection are applied. The compulsory license is one of the flexibilities to the TRIPS Agreement approved by the Doha Declaration and, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the expansion of its application was discussed through a proposal led by South Africa and India. The main objective of this paper is to address the issue of the TRIPS Agreement's flexibilities, such as the compulsory license, as well as the proposal for its extension made at the time. It also seeks to comment on the compulsory license in Brazilian law.