REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS -LEGAL CONSULTANT (MOLDOVA/MOROCCO)

Background

ITPC was birthed in 2003 in Cape Town, South Africa, by a committed group of 125 HIV activists from 65 countries who refused to accept a world in which people living with HIV were denied access to life-saving medicine. As ITPC grew into a Global Activist Network (GAN) advocating for the needs of communities affected by HIV and TB, it also laid the groundwork for community-driven work extending beyond singular diseases and addressing the systemic issues affecting people’s health and quality of life— exposing and resisting entrenched global power dynamics that consistently prioritize privilege and profit over the right to health and dignity. Today, we celebrate 20 years, highlighting progress in the fight for equitable access and affordability to treatment, amplifying community power, and building resilience within communities.

The Solidarity Project aims to improve public health outcomes (incidence, prevalence, and reductions in morbidity and mortality) by improving the affordability of key patented health products for HIV, tuberculosis, viral hepatitis, cervical cancer, and any public health emergencies in 24 LMICs. The Solidarity Project, which complements other access strategies such as voluntary licenses, aims to address IP barriers in 24 LMICs, by working within the framework of national laws and international agreements such as the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) to facilitate price reductions through market entry of key generic and biosimilar products (GBPs).

Under ITPC’s global coordination of the project, the study assessing adequacy of EPO validation system for the public health needs of LMICs using concrete examples from countries that already have validation agreements with EPO (Morocco and Moldova) will be implemented by the group of experts from global and national level.

Consultant Scope of Work and Deliverables

ITPC is seeking a national-level legal consultant to carry out research and analysis of pharmaceutical patent enforcement cases in Moldova using the following methodology:

1.Scope of the search

The objective is to identify judicial or administrative cases involving the enforcement of a pharmaceutical patent (European validated patents in priority, but national patents are also relevant) against a generic or competing product.

This is a search for court cases and decisions, not a patent search. The relevant sources are:

• national judicial registers and courts' case databases;
• decisions published by IP courts or commercial/civil chambers;
• administrative or customs decisions where available;
• general web search (Google in the local language) as a complement.

No specialised patent database (Espacenet, European Patent Register, etc.) is required at this stage — that part is handled separately at global level.

2.Conceptual keyword list

The terms below are a conceptual minimum, provided in English. Consultants should translate and adapt them to local legal terminology and to the way their national registers are structured, and should combine them freely (e.g. patent + medicine + injunction). Consultants are expected to add their own usual search strings and filters for IP cases.

Layer 1 — Patent litigation core

• patent infringement
• patent litigation / patent dispute
• patent enforcement
• infringement action
• preliminary / interim injunction
• patent validity / patent revocation / nullity action
• European patent / validated European patent

Layer 2 — Subject matter (pharmaceutical)

• medicinal product / pharmaceutical product
• medicine / drug
• active ingredient / active pharmaceutical ingredient (API)
• generic medicine / generic version
• (optional: one or two locally known INNs as test terms)

Layer 3 — Related procedural avenues (these could reveal a patent dispute that does not mention "patent" in the case title)

• patent linkage (patent–marketing authorization link)
• marketing authorization — suspension / withdrawal
• customs seizure / border measures
• unfair competition
• supplementary protection certificate (SPC), where relevant

3.Documenting the search

For each country, the consultant should record:

• the registers and databases consulted (with names/URLs);
• the search terms and combinations actually used, in the local language;
• any filters applied (e.g. IP cases, civil/commercial chamber, date range);
• the outcome.

A "no cases found" result is a valid and important finding, provided the search is documented broadly enough to be credible. The aim is a search wide enough that the absence of cases is itself a robust, defensible conclusion — not a sign that the search was too narrow.

4.Output per case (where cases are found)

For each identified case: a detailed description (1–3 pages), covering the parties, the patent(s) at issue (and whether it is a European/validated patent), the procedural stage and outcome, and a brief analysis from a legal perspective.

Duration of Consultancy

• 1 July to 30 September 2026

Deliverables

• A final report documenting the research methodology, findings (between 2-5 pages), and legal analysis of found cases (1-3 pages per case), if any.

Education & Experience Requirements

• Graduate degree in intellectual property law, law or related field is a plus
• PhD degree in intellectual property topic is a plus;
• Experience working in legal research and analysis particularly in intellectual property topics and patent law is a plus;
• Experience with IP litigation is a plus;
• Must be based in the country they are applying for (Moldova or Morocco);
• Experience working with NGOs, civil society organizations, or international organizations is an asset;
• Advanced computer experience is required – MS Office: Word, Excel, Access, Outlook and PowerPoint, and Adobe.

Compensation shall be provided in partial payments on a monthly basis for work completed, satisfactory to ITPC’s quality of service for not more than 8 days. However actual amount paid under the contract maybe less depending on number of cases found, with minimum number of days – 3 days if no cases of enforcement found. Consultant is expected to spend not more than 1-2 days on each case description, with maximum limit of days for whole assignment – 8 days. Payment will be made within 30 days upon delivery of the monthly invoice.

English