Patent offices and the global governance of knowledge

Peter Drahos

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511676581.002

1 - Patent offices and the global governance of knowledge

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 May 2010

Peter Drahos

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Peter Drahos: Affiliation:
Australian National University, Canberra

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Summary

The patent ocean: Kiribati

It is a little surprising that one can apply for a patent in Kiribati. More surprising though is that there are twenty or so mainly pharmaceutical patents registered in its patent office. No-one in Kiribati much cares about the few patent files languishing in a filing cabinet since, if the predictions about climate change are right, they are destined for Davey Jones' locker. Almost all of Kiribati is less than two metres above sea level and so its inhabitants are experiencing what happens when an ocean begins to rise up and wash over settled land. The furthest thing from anyone's mind on Kiribati is pharmaceutical patents and yet someone could be bothered to apply for them.

If one had to guess where one could not lodge a patent, Kiribati would have been a plausible choice. Given another guess one might opt for some deeply war-torn country such as Iraq or Afghanistan. In the case of Iraq it is a case of ‘nice try, but no cigar’. Prior to the US invasion of Iraq, there was a patent law in place. After the US invasion, the Administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority, Paul Bremer, promulgated an order that brought aspects of Iraq's patent law up to international standards. Patenting activity in the Iraq Patent Office (PO) is not great. The cigar is tantalizingly in reach with Afghanistan.

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Type: Chapter
Information: The Global Governance of Knowledge
Patent Offices and their Clients
, pp. 1 - 54

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511676581.002 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2010

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