Patent Protection for Green Technologies – is Compulsory Licensing the Way of Promoting Technology Transfer?

Abstract

This thesis aims to discuss about whether or not granting compulsory licenses to green technology is the way of promoting technology transfer.

It starts with defining what is the meaning of the term “green technology” by common meaning, by existing MEAs, by legal scholars, and finally conclude with the approach taken by this thesis.

The second part of this thesis examines the relationships between climate change and IP. It begins with a brief introduction on main international legal frameworks on preventing and mitigating climate change, focusing on the UNFCCC and its corresponding implementing documents, and how they are interacting with the IP field. Further in this chapter the author will discuss about the technology transfer requirements under these international treaties, and how they interact with the requirements of technology transfer under the TRIPs Agreement.

The third part of this thesis will be examining the compulsory licensing schemes under existing legal frameworks. It starts with examining the definitions of compulsory licensing, follows with the discussions of the existing legal frameworks that provides basis for compulsory licensing. This part of the discussions will be separate into two threads: the international and the national legal frameworks. The international legal frameworks on compulsory licensing will mainly be focused on the Paris Convention, TRIPS Agreement, and the Doha Declaration. For the national legal regimes, Germany and the United States will be discussed.

The final part of this thesis will discuss about if granting compulsory license for green technologies is justified under the existing international legal framework. The discussion of this part will focus on should climate change be permitted under the TRIPS as a ground of granting compulsory licenses. This chapter will further analyse the possibility of applying compulsory licensing schemes to green technologies, the advantage and disadvantages of granting compulsory licenses to green technologies, and whether or not this would be the best solution to achieve the goal of promoting technology transfer and eventually reaching the goal of combating climate change.

Keywords: Green Technology, Compulsory Licensing, TRIPS, UNFCCC, Climate Change