The first Obama campaign for the presidency reached out to access to medicines campaigners to join the broad coalition he was building to gain the presidency. In response to their concerns, he declared that his presidency would “break the stranglehold that a few big drug and insurance companies have on these life-saving drugs,” and pledged support for “the rights of sovereign nations to access quality-assured, low-cost generic medication to meet their pressing public health needs under the WTO’s Declaration on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).”  The Obama administration has now produced five Special 301 reports cataloging its policies on intellectual property and access to medicines. In the first three reports, as detailed below, the administration received low marks on its commitments from public health campaigners. Continue reading »

One of the diverse sources from which the international intellectual property regime emanates is an annual unilateral adjudication of foreign government trade policies by the United States under the so-called “Special 301” program and report. For over two decades the report has functioned as one of the primary sticks for the U.S.’s “carrot and stick” approach to international intellectual property policy. The report weighs countries’ compliance with intellectual property standards and enforcement efforts—both those embedded in existing treaties and those the U.S. would like to see adopted. It threatens and rewards countries via inclusion on or delisting from its annual ‘Watch List’ (“WL”) and ‘Priority Watch List’ (“PWL”), and has the power to implement unilateral trade sanctions when U.S. demands are not met. The construction of the report requires the administration to take decisions on which countries it views as having “adequate” intellectual property protection. The report is thus a key expression of the trade policy of the U.S. in intellectual property matters. Continue reading »