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The TRIPS Agreement: Balancing Incentive for Innovation with Access to Medicines

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The International Law Society, in conjunction with the Intellectual Property and Cyberlaw Society, will host a panel discussion on The TRIPS Agreement: Balancing Incentive for Innovation with Access to Medicines. The event, which will be held on Apr. 3 at 12:15 p.m. in Room 4049 of the Law School, is a student-organized precursor to the major law and economics conference Apr. 4-6 hosted by the Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke on International Public Goods and Transfer of Technology under a Globalized Intellectual Property Regime.

Panelists include:

Frederick M. Abbott, professor and Edward B. Eminent Scholar of International Law at Florida State University School of Law and consultant to the UNCTAD Project on TRIPS and Development to the World Health Organization; and

Sisule Frederick Musungu, advocate of the High Court of Kenya and a project officer of the Intellectual Property Project under the South Centre's Programme on International Trade and Development.

Panelists will discuss issues surrounding the basic philosophy of intellectual property rights as a means of creating an inncentive for innovation, balanced against access to benefits derived from innovation. Key points focus on medicines derived from public funds, protection of investment expectations and human rights.

The event, which was made possible through the support of the John Hope Franklin Center and the International Development Policy program at the Terry Sanford Institute for Public Policy Studies, is free and open to the public. A reception will follow.