CC-BY-SA. Image by 未知との遭遇
This note comments on each provision of the leaked RCEP IP chapter (dated October 2015) in brief. Patent is omitted, where I defer to others with expertise in that area of international IP law. It argues that like so many negotiating (and unfortunately, final) texts of recent IP chapters in trade agreements, there are proposals here that would, if adopted, constitute a radically unbalanced text promoting strong rights while providing little or no protection for other stakeholders in the IP system. Like the TPP text, provisions that suggest a degree of balance are mostly optional/exhortatory, where provisions for the benefit of right holders are mostly mandatory. An exception is the enforcement provisions which are, consistent with other agreements, mostly put in terms so as to require authority to make certain orders or grant certain remedies, rather than a requirement to actually make orders.
