The TRIPS Agreement and an Experimental Use Exception for 'Research Tools'

The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is central to the operation of the global patent system. One criticism of the Agreement is that it too focused on the rights of intellectual property holders. A key aspect of this concern is the manner in which scientists and other researchers can use patented inventions in their research efforts. It is clear that the Agreement allows for some limited exceptions to the rights granted by national statutes, however, there has been very little in-depth academic discussion of the limits of a TRIPS-compliant exception. The question at the core of this article is whether the TRIPS Agreement allows for a research use exception to be broad enough to include research with an invention — what loosely may be described as a ‘research tools exception’.