On Tuesday, 14 July 2026, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) delivered the following statement on agenda item, 11(iv), Report from the Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP) and Review of the Implementation of the Development Agenda Recommendations.
For development, measures to address access to patented technologies are important, and have been subject to several multilateral negotiations at the WTO, the WHO, and other UN bodies.
One topic that has received enormous attention is the quantitative restrictions on exports under a compulsory license in some national laws: the non-predominant share of production issue. This has the practical effect of making it difficult for both importing and exporting countries, and is very important as regards medical technologies. That said there are three areas where exports need not be limited as to the percent of output. They include: 1) compulsory licenses to remedy anticompetitive practices, 2) authorizations under the TRIPS three step test in Article 30, and 3) perhaps most underappreciated, exports authorized by statute or by a court as a limitation on remedies, under Part III, Article 44 of the TRIPS Agreement. Ironically, these options have been used more frequently by high-income countries, suggesting some failures in technical assistance to developing countries.
The Secretariat could convene an expert panel to address the experience of states in permitting the non-voluntary use of patents for export purposes, including through the three options just mentioned.
The CDIP may also want to invite the WHO and other parties to share recent work on mechanisms to create, expand and scale incentives to induce voluntary licensing of patents and know-how, a topic of considerable interest to WIPO members and highly relevant to the work of the CDIP.