期刊名称：University of Ottawa Law and Technology Journal
印刷版ISSN：1710-6028
电子版ISSN：1715-006X
出版年度：2006
卷号：3
期号：02
页码：517-537
出版社：University of Ottawa
摘要：The development and widespread dissemination of climate change technologies is critical to the reduction of global greenhouse gas emissions. This paper analyses and assesses the climate change regime and WTO TRIPS Agreement as they pertain to climate change technology transfer into developing countries. This international legal regime employs a mixture of “push” (encouraging technology transfer from developed countries) and “pull” (encouraging private sector trade and investment into developing countries) obligations. The most developed of these obligations is the TRIPS regime of strong patent protection rights in WTO Member countries (a pull obligation). The main findings of the TRIPS regime as it relates to climate change technology transfer are twofold. First, strong patent protection rights increase the cost of technological acquisition while having no positive bearing on increased foreign direct investment in, or technology trade to, many developing countries. The overall effect of TRIPS, then, is that it likely hinders technology transfer and dissemination in developing countries. Secondly, and more specifically, TRIPS forecloses an effective remedy of international compulsory licensing in cases where developed country patent holders refuse to license technologies to developing country firms due to fear of competition. While this kind of refusal to license may be cured by a remedy of compulsory licensing within domestic markets, TRIPS placed severe limits on compulsory licensing to supply export markets. An important avenue of technology transfer has therefore been closed off under TRIPS.
