WTO
Pirates of the Caribbean: US Intellectual Property Rights to Walk the Plank?
The government of Antigua and Barbuda has recently published a press release detailing their plans on establishing a statutory body to oversee the monetization and exploitation of the suspension of American intellectual property rights. The World Trade Organization (WTO) authorized the suspension of US IP rights in the small twin-island nation earlier this year. The organization overseeing these developments, the WTO Remedies Implementation Committee, is in the […]
When Trade and Intellectual Property Collide
When trade and intellectual property collide, strange things happen. In a dispute opposing Antigua and Barbuda to the United States at the World Trade Organization (WTO), that organization authorized Antigua and Barbuda to suspend the application of the its obligations under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement).
Patenting Health: You Cannot Own the Laws of Nature
On March 20, 2012, the United States Supreme Court decided Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc., 132 S. Ct. 1289 (U.S. 2012). The case was unanimous and emphatically reaffirmed that United States patent law does not allow ownership of “laws of nature.” The context was a pair of patents owned by Prometheus which claimed […]
TPP: The Shape of the New International IP Regime
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 […]
Old Issues but New Tricks: China uses the UNESCO Cultural Diversity Convention in a WTO dispute
Nicole Aylwin is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Communication and Culture Graduate Programme at York University. This past December the World Trade Organization appellate body ruled against China in a dispute with the United States. The US initiated the dispute in 2007 to address three concerns: 1) China was prohibiting foreign businesses from importing publications, […]
Blanket Censorship: Limiting the Bycatch
Brian Chau is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. A significant problem that arises with internet censorship comes from the sheer volume and infinite forms of data generated on a daily basis across the world. An analogy can be drawn to the practical realities of commercial fishing – for every net cast into […]