Sharīʼah Analysis of Theoretical Justification for Pharmaceutical Patent Protection; A Comparative Study of Western Thoughts with Islamic Law

Abstract

More than 2 billion people do not have access to life saving medicines after advent of global intellectual property rights protection of patents under The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) 1994. Plight for availability of innovative scientific products is same in agriculture, genetics, arts, information technology, and other fields of science and technology. WTO, founding organisation of the agreement, justify it on various legal and theoretical grounds.  Dispute Resolution System of WTO has repeatedly, decided priority of trade rights over public interest. Theoretical and legal literature on this topic stems from Western authors and a little is available from Sharīʼah perspective on protection of human life, religion, property, and race. Moreover, almost all Muslim countries are signatories to TRIPS Agreement without sufficient Sharīʼah reflections on intellectual property rights framework. This paper aims at presenting Sharīʼah theorisation of intellectual property rights.