TABLE 1
FROM:
Data protection: The new IP Frontier — An overview of existing laws and regulations
Dolores Cullen
BACK TO ARTICLETable 1. Classification of different countries according to the basic protection granted for pharmaceutical data
| Countries with no specific period of protection | Albania, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Central Africa Republic, Chad, Congo, Ivory Coast, Cuba, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Dominica, Ecuador, Fiji, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Gabon, The Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Grenada, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyz Republic, Lesotho, Macau China, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Moldova, Mongolia, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Philippines, Qatar, Rwanda, St. Lucia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Suriname, Swaziland, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Uganda, Uruguay, Venezuela, Zambia, Zimbabwe |
| Countries with a period of 18 months | Jamaica* |
| Countries with a period of five years | Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahrain, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Dominican Republic, Egypt**, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Israel, Jordan, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Oman, Panama, Peru, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei/Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, United States of America, Vietnam |
| Countries with a period of six years | China, Japan, South Korea***, Turkey |
| Countries with a period of eight years | Canada |
| Countries with a period of protection of ten years | Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom |
Notes: The table was put together using various sources: (a) Information provided by Member States of the WTO to the TRIPS Council. Article 63.2 of the TRIPS Agreement requires Members to notify the laws and regulations made effective by that Member pertaining to the Agreement; (b) Collection of Laws for Electronic Access (CLEA) of the World Intellectual Property Organization; (c) Inter-American System of Foreign Trade (SICE); (d) Information provided by individual patent offices and regional organisations.
* The Patents and Design Act has not been implemented yet.
** In Egypt there is disagreement over the interpretation of the law and whether it entails a period of protection, as it will be explained in more detail later on.
*** South Korea has a de facto six-year protection (not DE strictly speaking) and has recently negotiated an FTA with the US which will entail the adoption of a period of at least five years.
