The Sub-Commission's Initiative on Human Rights and Intellectual Property

Authors

David Weissbrodt, University of Minnesota Law SchoolFollow
Kell Schoff

Publication

Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights

Volume

22

Page

181

Year

2004

Abstract

In 2000 the United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights adopted a resolution raising concerns about the consistency of international intellectual property protections and human rights norms. This article summarises human rights norms relevant to intellectual property and the pertinent aspects of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, which overlap or potentially conflict. The article provides several examples of potential conflict and how they might be resolved. The article demonstrates that the Sub-Commission resolution helped to initiate a major international discussion and some action on the relationship between human rights and intellectual property.

Comments

Originally published in Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights: http://www.nqhr.net/.

Recommended Citation

David Weissbrodt and Kell Schoff, The Sub-Commission's Initiative on Human Rights and Intellectual Property, 22 Neth. Q. Hum. Rts. 181 (2004), available at https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/faculty_articles/260.