24-Mar-2004
Testimony of Eric H. Smith President International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA)
20-Mar-2004
Intellectual property rights were important to chemical firms in nineteenth century Europe and to US and European pharmaceutical companies in the twentieth century. The relationship was one of mutual importance. Because these companies wanted intellectual property rights, especially patents they took an interest in lobbying governments on their design.
20-Mar-2004
The Free Trade Agreements concluded between the four member states of the European Free Trade Association ¬(EFTA) - Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein - and a number of developing countries contain provisions on the protection of intellectual property rights (IPRs) which go far beyond the obligations already imposed on these countries in the framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
20-Mar-2004
Last month, GRAIN issued an open letter to Pascal Lamy, the chief of trade policy at the European Commission. In it, we disputed Mr Lamy’s public relations efforts aimed at trying to convince the world that the EU champions the rights of Third World farmers to save seeds.
17-Mar-2004
In these issues papers, authors are invited to examine a subject of importance in the developing international intellectual property regime and highlight key issues they see arising. The topics have been chosen following consultations with negotiators from developing countries, and respond to their concerns.
14-Mar-2004
This paper examines the way in which bilateral trade negotiations (Bilateral Investment Treaties and Bilateral Intellectual Property Agreements) are being used by the USA and others to build more extensive protection for intellectual property than that set out in the WTO TRIPS Agreement.
5-Mar-2004
Bilateral agreements are a powerful but hidden tool to achieve uniform market conditions for transnational corporations in developing countries. Silently hammered out between individual governments, they offer a direct means to cut deals over market access privileges, foreign investment, research funding or anchor-free profits.
