QUT Faculty of Law Intellectual Property and Innovation Law Research Program:

Intellectual Property and Sustainable Development
Symposium

Thursday, 6 September 2018
8:30am to 5:00pm



OJW Room, Level 12, S Block
QUT Gardens Point Campus

Innovation with a Purpose: Can Technology Innovation Revolutionize Health and Well-being?
Muhammad Zaheer Abbas, QUT
Abstract

Good health holds a central role in sustainable development as it enhances the ability of a community to develop human capital, undertake productive economic activities, and attract investment. Provision of universal public health is an indispensable requirement for sustainable development and it deserves to be a priority as this is a matter of basic justice and human rights. This paper focuses on the potential role of technology innovation in achieving global health goals. After providing a background to the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) No. 3: Good Health and Well-being, this study focuses on the following research questions: To what extent can the current innovation system help in achieving health-related SDGs? What are implications of the current innovation system for poorer and middle-income countries pursuing health-related SDGs? What are policy options available, in the current international legal regimes, for third world countries to improve universal public health despite budget constraints? What steps can be taken at an international level to harmonise technological innovation policy with the UN’s Sustainable Development Agenda 2030, especially, global health goals?

Biography

Mr. Muhammad Zaheer Abbas is a lecturer in law at International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan. He is currently conducting his PhD research at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) as a recipient of QUT Postgraduate Research Award (QUTPRA). He studied Law at International Islamic University, Islamabad and obtained BA General and LLB (Hons) with distinction in 2010. He also obtained LLM in International Law, with distinction, from the same university in 2012.
He has nearly 7 years of legal teaching and research experience at university level. He also served as Associate Editor of 'Islamabad Law Review', a peer reviewed open access research journal of Faculty of Shariah & Law. He has published 10 research papers, related to intellectual property protection and the public interest, in reputed peer-reviewed journals. His research publications include:
• “WTO Paragraph 6 System for Affordable Access to Medicines: Relief or Regulatory Ritualism”, Journal of World Intellectual Property, 2018;
• “Compulsory licensing and access to medicines: TRIPS amendment allows export to least-developed countries”, Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice, 2017;
• “Rationale of Compulsory Licensing of Pharmaceutical Patents in the Light of Human Rights Perspective”, Pakistan Perspectives, 2014;
• “TRIPS Flexibilities: Implementation Gaps between Theory and Practice”, Nordic Journal of Commercial Law, 2013;

In 2014, Mr. Abbas got an opportunity to attend the “Winter Institute” held at the College of William & Mary, Virginia, and Georgetown University, Washington D.C. In 2018, he attended the 15th WTO-WIPO Colloquium for Teachers of Intellectual Property held at Geneva, Switzerland. Mr. Abbas has been an active legal academic and researcher and has published and presented regularly in his area of teaching and research interest.

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