Trade and Intellectual Property

From Reuters: A gourmet coffee from the island of Hawaii won an European prize for top quality foods on Saturday as part of Europe's efforts to bolster the global use of prestigious place names like Champagne, Parma or Roquefort. The European Union is in a long-running dispute with

From a recent speech: In the 19th Century, when Ricardo developed what was to become the foundations of international trade theory, countries exported what they produced. In fact, the industrial revolution took root in countries that had coal mines and iron ore. A Portuguese entrepreneur importing a steam engine from

Joel had a post a while back where he wondered if there is "anything in TRIPS that would restrict the ability of a state to set price controls on patented pharmaceutical products."  He doubted there was. I was thinking about this issue recently, and while he is probably

A couple months again, Bryan noted that press reports to the contrary, perhaps the U.S. did not actually do very well in the China - IPRs dispute.  An Economist article from this week suggests that change may come despite the outcome in that case: Chinese firms are also increasingly

The WTO has always been great about letting us post official documents on WorldTradeLaw.net.  We ask permission and they always grant it.  However, I see WTO documents in various other places on the internet as well, and I would guess that at least some of these web sites have

It's a bit of a risk for me to talk about intellectual property issues, as IP is not my strong suit.  But, hey, it's just a blog, so here goes nothing. In an article about John McCain's views on health care policy, the Economist

Whenever I hear about compulsory licensing done pursuant to the TRIPS Agreement and related instruments, I wonder whether IP companies will lobby for a formal complaint against the practice.  It is permitted in principle, of course, but there is always the possibility that the applicable rules have not been followed.

Although ignored by most media outlets (but not IP Watch), the India Patent Controller is considering an application from Indian generic pharmaceutical company Natco to produce two drugs for export to Nepal under compulsory licence. If approved and implemented, this would be the second compulsory licence issued for export under