Repeal: “Foreign Patent Act” [Complete]

Recognizing that many World Assembly member states use patents to encourage scientific and technological innovation,

Affirming that the complete public disclosure of an invention in exchange for temporary exclusive rights to the invention constitutes a fair trade between inventors and the public,

Commending GAR #388, "Foreign Patent Act", for contributing to the harmonization of patent law throughout the World Assembly by establishing an international system for patent recognition,

Concerned, however, that the target resolution permits World Assembly member states to completely opt-out of the system it establishes,

Noting that research and development of new inventions requires a great investment of time, labour, and capital,

Emphasizing that if member states are free to refuse to recognize patents, they are also free to mass produce and sell inventions at a fraction of the cost required to develop them and so will inevitably undercut the original inventor on global markets,

Observing that this leaves inventors with substantial risks and few rewards, thus significantly reducing the incentive of inventors to innovate, as well as the incentive of investors to fund the research and development necessary for innovation, throughout the World Assembly,

Alarmed that the resolution also lacks any mechanism for inventors to appeal decisions of the authority responsible for international patent recognition,

Hoping that replacement legislation shall soon be passed,

The General Assembly,

Repeals GAR #388, "Foreign Patent Act".

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Pallaith:

The diverse needs and makeup of this assembly's nations make legislating patents incredibly difficult, and this assembly has passed and repealed multiple resolutions on this subject. Even if we believed this proposal intended to create a means to regulate patents across the varied worlds and nations of this assembly, it places a great burden on nations filing patents without guaranteeing they will be honored by other member nations and would subject them to restrictions by less than scrupulous actors. These nations acting in bad faith could bind other nations with the same rules supposedly designed to protect their intellectual property, or overlook or ignore patents entirely if they were so inclined. As if these barriers were not enough, the proposal would also penalize nations who are economically disadvantaged, a factor that has no bearing on the validity of a patent and further allows nations with more means and opportunity to benefit. The true intention of this proposal, after all, is to prevent nations from being required to recognize patents. Any mechanism this proposal contemplates is made irrelevant by a nation's ability to ignore those provisions. If we are to go through the effort to create a patent recognition system, we must do so without sanctioning intellectual property theft.

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