As reported on Kotaku.com – "British Telecommunications, a multinational mega-conglomerate with origins dating back to the 1800s, is suing Valve, a video game company that can't count to three". British Telecommunications (BT) alleges that on-line services offered by Valve infringe on four U.S. patents held by BT. The patents at trial are broadly worded and could implicate […]
Edward D. Fast is a Member of Parliament, former Trade Minister, and Canada’s representative throughout much of the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations. This is part 2 of the interview, in which we discuss specifics of the agreement, particularly issues in IP. Part 1 can be found here.
The Deal of the Century: An Interview with Ed Fast, Former Canadian Trade Minister The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is the largest trade agreement ever, made between 12 nations comprising 40% of the world’s economy. In an article written by Barack Obama, who championed the agreement, he claims the TPP will “write the rules of the […]
Patent law can be a polarizing topic, but it is especially so during international trade negotiations. Perhaps this is because the principles of patent law create fundamental conflicts between those that own patents and those that pay for patents. Despite this divide, these negotiations, along with some international diplomacy, often produce patent chapters that fall […]
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (“TPP”) agreement pages of both the Office of the United States Trade Representative and the White House display an understandable, if not provocative, logo extolling that the trade deal is “Made in America”. For a trade deal whose negotiations spanned the length of President Obama’s term in office, this is hardly surprising: with the end of […]
IP Osgoode would like to thank everyone who attended Dr. Matthew Rimmer’s lecture entitled “The Trans-Pacific Partnership: Copyright Law, the Creative Industries, and Internet Freedom” on October 8, 2015 at Osgoode Hall Law School. The audio-recording of the lecture is available here. To read the IPilogue's blog and commentary about the lecture, click here.
Modern multi-lateral trade treaties do not habitually soften IP protection. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), signed October 5th, is no exception. With prescription drug costs increasingly weighing on Western nations, does the TPP strike the best balance between protecting patents and incentivizing innovation?
The Trans Pacific Partnership: Copyright Law, the Creative Industries and Internet Freedom In a timely manner, only three days after the announcement of the conclusion of negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), Prof. Matthew Rimmer accepted our invitation and shared few of the hidden secrets behind the agreement as part of IP Osgoode speaks […]
It has been nearly twenty years since the Uruguay Round of World Trade Organization (WTO) trade talks that created the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement. In the intervening decades, multilateral trade negotiations have stalled and international agreements relating to intellectual property (IP) law have trended towards bi- and plurilateral levels. And, […]
It must have been really nice to have worked as an IP expert for the US Trade Representative (USTR) during the 1990s. Almost everything they proposed would become law. The global maximalist agenda had the large international institutions on its side. The golden age of international maximalism saw the creation of the WTO, the TRIPS […]