DPR addresses the fact that Brazilian Health Minister Saraiva Felipe issued a bulletin to the National Council on Health stating the government's opinion that levels of HIV and AIDS are "under control" in Brazil, which has previously been Brazil's rationale for breaking patents on anti-AIDS drugs.
"While encouraging, only time and action will tell if Brazil's sudden reversal of policy will become more than talk," says Nancie Marzulla, president of Defenders of Property Rights. "If Brazil does break patents, the world will now see the act for what it truly is, out and out theft," she adds
Defenders of Property Rights has been in talks with and strongly urging the Brazilian government for nearly a year not to take the dangerous, precedent-setting move of seizing patents on three U.S.- AIDS drugs.
The property rights advocacy group has also worked to raise awareness for U.S. policy makers on the importance of protecting intellectual property abroad, particularly in Brazil.
Defenders of Property Rights have also called on U.S. Trade Representative Robert Portman to question Brazil about its poor record of protecting American intellectual property rights and are seeking his office to take action against the offenses.
The Brazilian government felt they were exempt from global guidelines and had long argued that Brazil was in the midst of an AIDS "health emergency" and that a compulsory license abrogating patents would be issued if lower costs were not negotiated with American manufacturers.
Brazil's has the dubious honor as the number one abuser of intellectiual property (IP) rights in the Western Hemisphere costing American businesses an estimated $900 million in losses in 2003 alone.
