January 26, 2015 | 9:30 – 2:30
American University School of International Service
Printable agenda & directions (PDF)
Co-hosted by the AU School of International Service and AU Washington College of Law’s Program on International Organizations, Law and Diplomacy
The event will be streamed live at http://bit.ly/1ExHnX9. Continue reading »
In his visit to the G20 in Brisbane, President Barack Obama sought to promote his ambitious Pacific Rim trade agreement — the Trans-Pacific Partnership. He told an audience at the University of Queensland:
We’ll keep leading the effort to realize the Trans-Pacific Partnership to lower barriers, open markets, export goods, and create good jobs for our people. But with the 12 countries of the TPP making up nearly 40 percent of the global economy, this is also about something bigger. It is our chance to put in place new, high standards for trade in the 21st century that uphold our values. So, for example, we are pushing new standards in this trade agreement, requiring countries that participate to protect their workers better and to protect the environment better, and protect intellectual property that unleashes innovation, and baseline standards to ensure transparency and rule of law. Continue reading »
Image: EFF (CC-BY)
Dear Mr. President: The organizations signing this letter want to express our deep concerns regarding some of the provisions under negotiation in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). These provisions could seriously impact access to affordable medicines by delaying generic competition as well as impacting governments’ ability to advance public health policies in the U.S and around the world.
While we have different perspectives and interests, we are united by our shared concerns regarding access to affordable medicines and the need to ensure competition in the pharmaceutical market in the U.S. and abroad.
Authors: Hazel V. J. Moir, Brigitte Tenni, Deborah Gleeson, and Ruth Lopert
Abstract: In the Trans Pacific partnership Agreement (TPPA) negotiations, the United States has proposed expanded patent protections that will likely impact the affordability of medicines in TPPA partners. This includes antiretroviral (ARV) medicines used in the treatment of HIV/AIDS. Continue reading »
Groups Demand That Negotiators Release Text of Secret Trade Deal
[EFF Press Release, Link, (CC-BY)] The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has joined dozens of civil society groups from around the world in calling for the release of the secret text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)—a massive proposed trade agreement that could quash digital rights for Internet users everywhere in the name of intellectual property protection. Continue reading »
Image: EFF (CC-BY)
President Obama gave a talk on the stat of the economy last week at the Business Roundtable, group of American CEOs that promotes pro-business public policies. The full transcript of his talk, including questions and answers is here.
As part of a longer answer to a general question on the global economy, Obama mentioned bilateral talks with China. He said that his administration is “pushing hard” on China to strengthen intellectual property, and asked the member companies of the Business Roundtable to “help us by speaking out when you’re getting strong-armed.” Continue reading »
[Médecins Sans Frontières, Link] As the 6th round of negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade agreement take place in India, people living with HIV are rallying in the streets of New Delhi to warn that harmful intellectual property (IP) provisions – put forth by Japan – could severely restrict access to affordable medicines for people in developing countries.
Started in May 2013, the RCEP is being negotiated between the 10 ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries and Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea. The third meeting of the RCEP Working Group on IP (WGIP) is on this week’s agenda, and negotiators are meeting to discuss intellectual property provisions. Continue reading »
[Médecins Sans Frontières Access Campaign] The European Union’s (EU) free trade and research and development (R&D) policies promote excessive intellectual property (IP) protection. This approach jeopardises access to affordable, needed medicines and impedes needs-driven biomedical innovation. Médecins Sans Frontières Access Campaign and our partners at HAI Europe and Oxfam are offering policy-makers seven straight-forward solutions that could transform harmful trade and R&D policy. By taking these solutions on board, the EU could enhance medicines access and pharmaceutical innovation in the EU and around the world.
Image: EFF (CC-BY)
The 12 heads of state of the nations negotiating the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) met in Beijing today, where they issued a statement indicating they have”instructed our Ministers and negotiators to make concluding this agreement a top priority.” However, their statement did not discuss a deadline or timeframe.
They also released a “Trade Ministers’ Report to Leaders,” which aimed to show that the pace of negotiations has “accelerated” and negotiators have made progress in many areas. On the topic of intellectual property negotiations, however, the report hints that negotiators are having trouble (they are “working hard” through a “challenging” area). Here is the full bullet on this part of the negotiations: Continue reading »
University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law, Vol. 35, No. 4, 2014.
Abstract: The United States has some of the highest standards of intellectual property protection in the world, though many copyright and patent laws in the United States are limited through balancing provisions that provide exceptions to the exclusive rights conferred by the intellectual property system. The United States has engaged in efforts to raise intellectual property standards worldwide through creation of new global norms, such as through negotiations of free trade agreements like the currently negotiated Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. Higher levels of intellectual property protection be unnecessary to attract investment in developing countries. In fact, increasing intellectual property standards may actually result in negative impacts on development for low- and middle-income countries. This paper examines the role of intellectual property rules in attracting investment for developing countries.
Author: Kimberlee Weatherall.
Abstract: This paper analyses certain key provisions of the leaked 16 May 2014 text of the TPP IP Chapter – mostly, the ones people haven’t been talking about: particularly the trade mark, designs, and geographical indications provisions, as well as rules regarding national treatment, the preamble or objectives clauses, and the criminal liability provisions. It also makes some limited comments about the interaction between the chapter and investor-state dispute settlement.
Trade secrecy, arguably the most active but least understood and studied of intellectual property’s doctrines, is on the rise. Over the past two years, there has been increased legislative activity in this space — the most since the revision of the Uniform Trade Secrets Act in 1985. Most prominently, it has been the subject of an alarming report out of the White House documenting increasing risk to US corporations from state-sponsored cyberespionage. Based upon those significant but hard to quantify harms, bills have been introduce in Congress over the past few years designed to amplify the options for aggrieved companies. The perceived inadequacies in the current law have spurred the most recent legislation, known as the Defend Trade Secrets Act and Trade Secrets Protection Act. Continue reading »
