THE CLIMATE CRISIS AND PATENT MONOPOLIES: REASSESSING COMPULSORY LICENSING FOR GREEN TECHNOLOGIES UNDER THE TRIPS FRAMEWORK

The increase in global climate crisis requires rapid distribution and adoption of climate change mitigation technologies which are blocked from being transferred to the growing and developing nations across the world due to patent monopolies established by the World Trade Organisation’s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement. This research article offers a clear legal and policy analysis of the conflict between the international patent protections and the Global South's urgent need to access climate technologies through the method of compulsory licensing. This analysis evaluates using provisions under Article 31 of the TRIPS Agreement and Section 92 of the Indian Patents Act, 1970, which allows domestic manufacturers to utilise foreign-owned green patents without the need of express consent. This article also explores the conflict between the transfer goals of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) technology and enforcement of TRIPS, the objections regarding undisclosed trade secrets, the concentration of green patent ownership, and the effect of Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) lawsuits. At the end, this article recommends a binding ‘Doha Declaration on Climate Change’ to achieve global trade law alignment with the urgent need for mitigating climate change through technology.