A concise analysis of the relationship between patent rights and human rights is given in this book, focusing on the right to food. The UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights identified ‘apparent conflicts’ or ‘actual or potential conflicts’ between human rights and intellectual property rights. The TRIPS Agreement under the WTO Agreement and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights constitute the central treaties in the analysis. The book finds that the right to food and related human rights of the Covenant give important guidance when implementing intellectual property legislation and science policy in general. Moreover, the book does not find that the two treaties actually conflict. There are, however, concerns regarding the national implementation of the treaties.
Hans Morten Haugen, Dr. Juris (2006) University of Oslo, M.A in Political Science 1995, is Associate Professor at Diakonhjemmet University College, Oslo. He has written four articles on human rights and patent rights in The Journal of World Intellectual Property. Dr. Haugen received the prestigious His Majesty the King’s Gold Medal for 2007 for his dissertation, on which the current book is based.