A/70/279 anti-counterfeiting measures.” 4 Furthermore, border enforcement measures have been used to seize legitimate generic medications in transit. 5 22. According to the Special Rapporteur on the right to health, the ultimate goal of developed countries in various bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements remains the universal harmonization of intellectual property laws according to their own higher intellectual property standards and enforcement measures (A/HRC/11/12, para 23). Developing countries, for their part, generally try to resist this trend. 23. There are several claimed benefits of granting patent rights and implementing the TRIPS Agreement: offering companies incentives to invest in the expensive processes of developing new technologies and bringing them to market; rewarding human creativity, especially in areas that demand massive investment with no guarantee of an effective financial return; obliging inve ntors to disclose their findings; and developing new technologies. 24. These claims need to be carefully weighed, taking into consideration the various interests at stake and the technologies in question (for example, some require expensive research, some do not). The effects of intellectual property rights are strongly context-dependent. It is not possible to expect the same outcomes in countries with very different levels of technological capacity and industrial profile. Many academic and other analyses strongly reject the premise of the TRIPS Agreement that minimum standards of protection are equally beneficial for countries with diverse levels of socio-economic and technological development.3 25. Patent offices ascertain whether patent applications are compatible with the precise standards of patentability under national law, which vary, sometimes significantly, from jurisdiction to jurisdiction within the TRIPS Agreement parameters. There are concerns relating to the low standard of inventiveness applied in some countries, which has enabled “the grant of a large number of patents on minor or trivial developments, often aggressively used to artificially extend the duration of protection and to block legitimate competition”. 6 26. The administrative challenge of “patent quality”, ensuring that patents are issued only where justified, is significant. 7 Aggressive patenting practices exploit such administrative weaknesses. The practice of patent “trolling” and the proliferation of patents thickets, where the right-holder’s aim is not to manufacture any product or use the process, but to launch frivolous lawsuits and collect fees based on ambiguous patent claims or exclude others from developing competing __________________ 4 5 6 7 8/26 See Joseph E. Stiglitz, Arjun Jayadev, “India’s patently wise decision”, 8 April 2013; available from www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/the-impact-of-the-indian-supreme-court-s-patentdecision-by-joseph-e--stiglitz-and-arjun-jayadev. Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), The Potential Impact of Free Trade Agreements on Public Health (Geneva, UNAIDS, 2012); Mônica Steffen Guise Rosina and Lea Shaver, “Why are generic drugs being held up in transit? Intellectual property rights, international trade, and the right to health in Brazil and beyond”, Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics, vol. 40, No. 2 (Summer 2012). United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development, Resource Book on TRIPS and Development (New York, Cambridge University Press, 2005). See R. Polk Wagner, “Understanding patent-quality mechanisms, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, vol. 157, No. 6 (2009). 15-12543