Public health and intellectual property
WHO has a longstanding mandate to work on the interface of public health and intellectual property.
In this role, PHI provides advice to other WHO Departments, regional and country offices and Member States on public health related aspects of intellectual property and represents WHO in relevant meetings of other international organizations, namely the World Trade Organization and the World Intellectual Property Organization.
The main activities include:
- providing, upon request, technical support to Member States on public health related aspects of intellectual property
- providing training and capacity building to Member States on how to manage and apply intellectual property for public health
- researching the relationship of innovation, intellectual property and access to medical products
- facilitating access to patent information
These activities are carried out in close collaboration with other relevant international and regional organizations, namely the World Trade and the World Intellectual Property Organization as well as WHO Country and Regional Offices.