Tripping up TRIPS

The World Trade Organisation's TRIPS - Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights - is one of the most powerful tools of the intellectual monopolist world, and one that most have never heard of. It's often used by "developed" countries - that is, those who place a heavy emphasis on intellectual monopoly law - to force the same on other countries. Now, some of these are daring to fight back, as this story explains:

The world’s largest developing countries are seeking an amendment to international trade rules to provide more protection for genetic resources and traditional knowledge used in patent applications, and have presented the amendment proposal to other governments with mixed results.

Whether or not this is accepted, it is important, for two reasons. First, that these countries are daring to stand up to the intellectual monopoly bullies, and second, because it shows that TRIPS is not engraved in stone - that it can be changed. As it must.