[PASSED] Repeal "International Patent Agreement"

[Kenmoria]

“There’s a slight pronominal salad in the third clause: ‘Due to them not being able to afford them’ does not make for the easiest reading. Regardless of whether that is rectified, this proposal has my full support.”

“I can defend my existence from most things.” Lewitt comments. “I am opposed to this repeal on ideological grounds.” He briefly looks around, just in case this was the cue for his long-overdue execution. Upon verifying that nothing of the sort is occurring, he turns back to the chamber. “This is not the most helpful of feedback, but it is useful to state my opposition early.”

"Schrodinger's Ambassador," grumbles Under-Secretary Janus Vilvotr just loud enough to be picked up by the microphone.

Lewitt looks to be about to respond, standing from his seat and gathering papers in hand. First, however, he checks the transcript of the debate: a precautionary measure. Oh, he had said that he would support it earlier. That complicates matters. A rather defeated expression upon his face, he sits down again. Well, it wasn’t as though he had the time to read every proposal to the most exacting of detail. The authoring delegation was trustworthy, and the format was correct, so he couldn’t be blamed for assuming the proposal would be supportable; could he? Perhaps, he could. “Fair enough.” He mutters, preparing to defend his position in slightly quieter terms than he otherwise would.

[Simone Republic]

Again, not keen on the statements made in the repeal, and again principally on personal political grounds as I consider myself a conservative (small "c") in terms of economic policy. I consider the use of patents to protect drug manufacturers to be an absolute necessity to encourage innovation.

I am usually broadly to the "libertarian/center right" to use US terminology in terms of economic policy, whereas I take the view that most WA voters are broadly to my left. I won't comment further as I think this is a matter of principles, and we can spend the rest of our lives defending them (and indeed most politicians/community organizers/volunteers etc do, in their real lives).

[Serdequre]

Jang Er wanders through the most-recent venue of this proposal's debate long enough to hastily flip around one of two (the other had his name on it) plaques on his desk so that the "IN FAVOR" side was visible to the other representatives and diplomats. He'd have to toast the Under-Secretary from Heidgaudr later if the thing passed.

[Potted Plants United]

"Support without replacement. Patents slow down technological progress."

[Heidgaudr]

"We are pleased to announce that this proposal is now at vote! Thank the gods whatever errors were causing the previous repeal from passing have now since been fixed."

[Attempted Socialism]

Ambassador Pride: "It is with great pleasure that I mark the vote of the Solidarity Movement as 'for' this repeal. Three cheers for our comrades in Heidgaudr, especially comrade Vilvotr, for your stellar work."
Pride followed the short statement up by lifting his vodka-glass in the direction of Janus Vilvotr as salute before sipping.

[Soviet Yoshilandia]

If we repeal this, we should make a better one including the thing that is the reason that it is being repealed upon.

[Heidgaudr]

Ambassador Pride: "It is with great pleasure that I mark the vote of the Solidarity Movement as 'for' this repeal. Three cheers for our comrades in Heidgaudr, especially comrade Vilvotr, for your stellar work."
Pride followed the short statement up by lifting his vodka-glass in the direction of Janus Vilvotr as salute before sipping.

Janus raised his flask in response. "M' pleasure!"

If we repeal this, we should make a better one including the thing that is the reason that it is being repealed upon.

"Comrade, patents are the enemy of communism. No glorious revolution should ever recognize the capitalist idea of patents."

[Princess Rainbow Sparkles]

“The Princess happily votes FOR this simple, well-justified repeal proposal. We agree with the principal argument that patent rules ought to be determined nationally. To the extent international disputes may arise over patents, a WA framework for dealing with such disputes between nations may have been appropriate (and may be appropriate for the future). But establishing a WA bureaucracy to dictate patent rights and terms to members was always an overreach.”

[Aelyria]

"I see that this body has moved beyond applying merely strained logic in repealing critical legislation, and is now simply ignoring the legislation text outright for repeal. A bold move, to say the least, but one with a depressingly high probability of success."

Ambassador Forrest-Drake holds up the text in one hand. She gestures to a line near the end of the measure with the other. "Section 5, and subsection 3 thereof 'Authorizes member states to create reasonable limitations and exceptions to WAPO patents when the patent holder uses the rights associated with the patent in a manner determined to have...unfairly blocked access to the invention in a member state.'"

"The legislation already present achieves all of the explicit aims identified as reasons for repeal. This repeal is simply, flatly unnecessary and would cause chaos and a critical failure of international diplomacy should it be passed. I urge all fellow member states to reject this unnecessary and wrongheaded repeal of perfectly functional, constructive legislation that does not even have the faults the repeal alleges it to have!"

[Heidgaudr]

Seeing as how Janus was still in the process of toasting Ambassador Pride, Asgeir moves the microphone towards himself.

"I see that this body has moved beyond applying merely strained logic in repealing critical legislation, and is now simply ignoring the legislation text outright for repeal. A bold move, to say the least, but one with a depressingly high probability of success."

"I'm not sure how you reached that conclusion, but I can assure you we haven't ignored the target legislation. Our repeal is not a line-by-line rebuttal pointing out small flaws; it's a complete conceptual counter. We firmly oppose patent rights - and all intellectual property rights - for all private individuals. As such, we believe we've adequately addressed the target."

Ambassador Forrest-Drake holds up the text in one hand. She gestures to a line near the end of the measure with the other. "Section 5, and subsection 3 thereof 'Authorizes member states to create reasonable limitations and exceptions to WAPO patents when the patent holder uses the rights associated with the patent in a manner determined to have...unfairly blocked access to the invention in a member state.'"

"Patents are a system whereby the creators of an invention are given the exclusive right to profit from their invention for a period of time. It would be unreasonable to interpret Section 5 as allowing us to ignore foreign patent rights in the Associated Communities because we don't want the creator to profit. It would render IPA completely and utterly toothless. Anybody would be able to infringe for any reason!"

"The legislation already present achieves all of the explicit aims identified as reasons for repeal. This repeal is simply, flatly unnecessary and would cause chaos and a critical failure of international diplomacy should it be passed. I urge all fellow member states to reject this unnecessary and wrongheaded repeal of perfectly functional, constructive legislation that does not even have the faults the repeal alleges it to have!"

"You can't make an omelette without cracking a few eggs, as the saying goes. Our nation was founded after bloody revolution against capitalists, so be glad we haven't done so here in the World Assembly."

[Sierra Lyricalia]

Leo fumbles with a blender as the intern next to him spins a fresh orange around a juicer cup. The intern, clearly at the end of her patience, pauses for a moment to take a deep breath.

"No, you already put in the vanilla. You can see the milk is darker now, right? OK, so all that's left is the OJ and the ice. I got the juice here, and the ice cubes are in the bag on your side there. OK. OK? Yes, that's it."

She stifles an enormous sigh, though not the eye roll, as she sits back down at the desk. Meanwhile, Leo turns on the blender, which buzzes at an obnoxiously high volume for a few moments while the concoction mixes. When the ghastly machine falls silent, Leo takes the lid off and removes the vessel from the motorized base. He sips directly from it and smiles happily.

"That will do nicely. Thank you for your assistance. Now, what were we voting on again...?"

He peers down at the paper on the desk, slightly spotted with drops of vanilla extract and a few stray orange seeds.

"...I can barely read the title - oh, yes, that. Yes. We vote For."

[WayNeacTia]

Seeing as #2 was just repealed and thus nations possess NO rights or duties currently, this repeal is meaningless as nations aren't required to follow the mandates of the original resolution. Quite the conundrum we are in not having the replacement go to vote as soon as #2 was repealed......

[North Cromch]

Seeing as #2 was just repealed and thus nations possess NO rights or duties currently, this repeal is meaningless as nations aren't required to follow the mandates of the original resolution. Quite the conundrum we are in not having the replacement go to vote as soon as #2 was repealed......

Which effectively makes the World Assembly a cosmetic badge for members?

[WayNeacTia]

Seeing as #2 was just repealed and thus nations possess NO rights or duties currently, this repeal is meaningless as nations aren't required to follow the mandates of the original resolution. Quite the conundrum we are in not having the replacement go to vote as soon as #2 was repealed......

Which effectively makes the World Assembly a cosmetic badge for members?

If resolutions do exactly as they say they do, then yes. Seeing as how GAR #1 only establishes the WA, yet provides no actual mandate for nations to actually follow any of the resolutions, then yep a cosmetic badge….. /end threadjack

[New Falkarth]

Seeing as #2 was just repealed and thus nations possess NO rights or duties currently, this repeal is meaningless as nations aren't required to follow the mandates of the original resolution. Quite the conundrum we are in not having the replacement go to vote as soon as #2 was repealed......

It might be meaningless right now, but we can presume that there will soon be at least some replacement for #2. At that point, this and every other passed resolution will have to be upheld. Therefore every new resolution should still be considered relevant and important.

---

That being said, we oppose this resolution. This repeal claims it will help inventors and poor people against big corporations, but actually it does the opposite. Right now the inventor can at least get some money from big corporations for selling his patent or he can start producing and selling his invention by himself without corporations (legally) stealing his invention. Without International Patent Agreement, any corporation can take the invention and start producing it with no regards to the inventor. You could say that the government of each country can enforce their own patent laws, but big corporations can simply move their production to another country, where the patent laws of the inventors nation doesn't reach them. I believe Maria-Fernanda Novo, WA Ambassador for the Armed Republic of Juansonia already raised this concern (and many more valid points) so I won't go deeper into this.

In the end we feel like this repeal is based too much on blind ideology and it will also cause more harm to people it claims to protect. We also believe that it stands against some of the principles of WA, them being: cooperation between nations on issues that reach beyond the borders of individual nations.

Edit: fixed some spelling errors

[Aelyria]

Seeing as how Janus was still in the process of toasting Ambassador Pride, Asgeir moves the microphone towards himself.

"I see that this body has moved beyond applying merely strained logic in repealing critical legislation, and is now simply ignoring the legislation text outright for repeal. A bold move, to say the least, but one with a depressingly high probability of success."

"I'm not sure how you reached that conclusion, but I can assure you we haven't ignored the target legislation. Our repeal is not a line-by-line rebuttal pointing out small flaws; it's a complete conceptual counter. We firmly oppose patent rights - and all intellectual property rights - for all private individuals. As such, we believe we've adequately addressed the target."

Ambassador Forrest-Drake holds up the text in one hand. She gestures to a line near the end of the measure with the other. "Section 5, and subsection 3 thereof 'Authorizes member states to create reasonable limitations and exceptions to WAPO patents when the patent holder uses the rights associated with the patent in a manner determined to have...unfairly blocked access to the invention in a member state.'"

"Patents are a system whereby the creators of an invention are given the exclusive right to profit from their invention for a period of time. It would be unreasonable to interpret Section 5 as allowing us to ignore foreign patent rights in the Associated Communities because we don't want the creator to profit. It would render IPA completely and utterly toothless. Anybody would be able to infringe for any reason!"

"The legislation already present achieves all of the explicit aims identified as reasons for repeal. This repeal is simply, flatly unnecessary and would cause chaos and a critical failure of international diplomacy should it be passed. I urge all fellow member states to reject this unnecessary and wrongheaded repeal of perfectly functional, constructive legislation that does not even have the faults the repeal alleges it to have!"

"You can't make an omelette without cracking a few eggs, as the saying goes. Our nation was founded after bloody revolution against capitalists, so be glad we haven't done so here in the World Assembly."

"I have no interest in debate with someone who does not even believe that a person is entitled to the fruits of their labors. Patents, when properly enforced, are one of the only ways to ensure that a person's intellectual labors are actually rewarded. Your efforts are in vain, if you believe this will somehow reduce the exploitation of the working class or the theft of labor value by capitalist/corporationist actors. If your purpose is to delete parents entirely, you are simply wrong, and there is nothing further to discuss."

[Heidgaudr]

Repeal "International Patent Agreement" was passed 13,433 votes to 1,916.

---

A few hours later

The after party following the passage of Repeal "International Patent Agreement" was raucous, to say the least. Empty bottles of liquor littered the floor, cradled by sleeping interns. Ambassador Asgeir Trelstad lay passed out on his office couch. Janus, the best at holding their alcohol of the entire office, was left as the only person awake.

He sat on the cold tile floor, hunched over the toilet in preparation for the puke that was working its way up his esophagus. This moment of quiet gave the under-secretary an unfortunately long amount of time to reflect on his life choices. He had lived a fulfilling life as his many papers published in academic journals and tenure as an economics professor could attest. At least, that's what he told himself during occasions like these. Could anybody call the unimaginable loneliness he felt fulfilling? Spending more time drunk than sober certainly wasn't.

He looked down at his hands which were gripping the porcelain. Red splotches on his hands and fingers signalling impending liver failure. Palmar erythema. That's what his doctor had called it. Janus sighed. Well, even if this life wasn't personally fulfilling, at least he had done a great work in repealing "International Patent Agreement." Too bad he wouldn't last long enough to see the other two companion resolutions also repealed, but at least he could shuffle off this mortal coil with the satisfaction that he had struck a major blow to the international bourgeoisie.

He felt a buzz in his pocket. Who would be calling his cell phone at this time of night? He clumsily pulled his phone and answered it. "This is Janus", he slurred.

"Janus, it's good to speak to you. This is Dvalinn Hystr from the National Council. I wanted to congratulate you and the rest of the WA office for passing the patent repeal. I just got done speaking with your doctor, Doctor... uh... Viggtheimnu, and he informed me that we now have the ability to legally implant artificial livers."

"That's good and all but I won't be living long enough to get one."

"Yes, I know waiting lists for operations like these are often very long. As thanks for service to the Associated Communities and their workers, I've already pulled some strings for you. Get back to Ilfrý and you'll be on the operating table before the week is done."

"Bullshit. Bull fucking shit. You shouldn't be wasting resources on a pitiful excuse of a human like myself. Other people deserve it way more than I do."

Councillor Hystr laughed. "I know the World Assembly can be a bleak and depressing place, so I can understand if you don't want to live anymore. But think of what you and your dogged tenacity can accomplish with a few more years."

Tears began rolling down Janus' cheeks. He could barely hold back the sobs. "I'll be on my way home tonight."

[Tinfect]

OOC:
About damn time. I'll see if I still have that blocker draft I put together ages ago and we can put the matter to a final rest.

[Attempted Socialism]

I wanted to do an IC celebration, but can't muster it right now. Congrats Heidgaudr, jollly good repeal!