Law Commons^™

The Trade Origins Of Privacy Law, Anupam Chander

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The desire for trade propelled the growth of data privacy law across the world. Countries with strong privacy laws sought to ensure that their citizens’ privacy would not be compromised when their data traveled to other countries. Even before this vaunted Brussels Effect pushed privacy law across the world through the enticement of trade with the European Union, Brussels had to erect privacy law within the Union itself. And as the Union itself expanded, privacy law was a critical condition for accession.

But this coupling of privacy and trade leaves a puzzle: how did the U.S. avoid a comprehensive privacy …

Two Decades Of Trips In China, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

This chapter reviews China’s engagement with the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) in the past twenty years. It begins by highlighting TRIPS-related developments in the first decade of China’s WTO membership. The chapter then discusses the country’s ‘innovative turn’ in the mid-2000s and the ramifications of its changing policy positions. This chapter continues to examine the US-China trade war, in particular the second TRIPS complaint that the United States filed against China in March 2018. It concludes with observations about the impact of the TRIPS Agreement on China, China’s impact on that agreement and how the …

Cuban Embargo: An Insufficient Measure To Encourage Us Foreign Policy Interests, Esme Jm Prowse

Major Papers

This major paper examines the Cuban embargo as an ineffective hard power policy and explores the potential of soft, hard, and smart power as alternative approaches to resolve the failures of the 60-year-old blockade. The paper analyzes the historical context and rationale behind the embargo and assesses its impact on Cuban-American relations, regional stability, and U.S. national interests. The study argues that the embargo has failed to achieve its intended goals and has instead perpetuated a cycle of hostility, isolation, and human rights abuses. By drawing on the theoretical frameworks of soft, hard, and smart power, the paper presents policy …

Toothless Trade? Implications Of The Federal Circuit’S Clearcorrect Decision For The Enforceability Of Intellectual Property Protections In Digital Trade Under Usmca, Alissa Chase

Catholic University Law Review

Digital trade is growing faster than trade in goods and services and comprises a key area for innovation and intellectual property concerns. The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (“USMCA”) acknowledged this development by including chapters devoted to both digital trade and intellectual property. In 2015, the Federal Circuit held that the International Trade Commission (“ITC”) does not have jurisdiction over unfairly traded digital goods. Without exclusion orders issued by the ITC, the United States lacks a powerful tool to enforce the USMCA provisions protecting intellectual property in unfairly traded digital goods. This comment explores the implications of the Federal Circuit’s 2015 ClearCorrect …

The Jekyll And Hyde Story Of International Trade: The Supreme Court In Phrma V. Walsh And The Trips Agreement, Srividhya Ragavan

Srividhya Ragavan

No abstract provided.

How The United States Stopped Being A Pirate Nation And Learned To Love International Copyright, John A. Rothchild

Pace Law Review

From the time of the first federal copyright law in 1790 until enactment of the International Copyright Act in 1891, U.S. copyright law did not apply to works by authors who were not citizens or residents of the United States. U.S. publishers took advantage of this lacuna in the law, and the demand among American readers for books by popular British authors, by reprinting the books of these authors without their authorization and without paying a negotiated royalty to them.

This Article tells the story of how proponents of extending copyright protections to foreign authors—called international copyright—finally succeeded after more …

When The Chinese Intellectual Property System Hits 35, Peter K. Yu

Peter K. Yu

This article explores what it means for the Chinese intellectual property system to hit 35. It begins by briefly recapturing the system’s three phases of development. It discusses the system’s evolution from its birth all the way to the present. The article then explores three different meanings of a middle-aged Chinese intellectual property system – one for intellectual property reform, one for China, and one for the TRIPS Agreement and the global intellectual property community.

When The Chinese Intellectual Property System Hits 35, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

This article explores what it means for the Chinese intellectual property system to hit 35. It begins by briefly recapturing the system’s three phases of development. It discusses the system’s evolution from its birth all the way to the present. The article then explores three different meanings of a middle-aged Chinese intellectual property system – one for intellectual property reform, one for China, and one for the TRIPS Agreement and the global intellectual property community.

The 'Jus' Of Use: Trademarks In Transition, Bita Amani, Carys Craig

Articles & Book Chapters

Changes to Canada's Trade-marks Act will soon permit, for the first time, the registration and enforcement of unused trademarks. Far from a mere legal technicality or practical exigency, this shift fundamentally alters the nature of trademarks and the trademark system. Traditionally, it is the use of trade indicia in the marketplace that determines title and acquisition of trademark rights; use that defines the scope and duration of rights; and use that gives rise to claims of infringement. By virtue of the "Jus of use", the trademark system has remained, over time, reasonably true to its rationale, encouraging and rewarding honest …

Lodging The Sustainable Development Goals In The International Trade Regime: From Trade Rhetoric To Trade Plethoric, Nasser Alreshaid

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Two Comparative Perspectives On Copyright's Past And Future In The Digital Age, Timothy K. Armstrong

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

A review of two recent scholarly books on digital copyright law: The Copyright Wars: Three Centuries of Trans-Atlantic Battle by Peter Baldwin (Princeton, 2014), and Copyfight: The Global Politics of Digital Copyright Reform by Blayne Haggart (Univ. of Toronto, 2014). Both books are meticulously researched and carefully written, and each makes an excellent addition to the literature on copyright. Contrasting both titles in this joint review, however, helps to reveal a few respects in which each work is incomplete; indeed, at times each book reads as a critique of the other.

Baldwin's The Copyright Wars argues that modern debates over …

Section By Section Commentary On The Tpp Final Ip Chapter Published 5 November 2015 – Part 2 – Copyright, Kimberlee G. Weatherall

Kimberlee G Weatherall

This note comments on the TPP copyright provisions (final text). It also compares each provision to multilateral and bilateral treaties. The material here is necessarily preliminary and does not purport to be complete. It is published on the basis that it may assist others’ analysis and commentary

Section By Section Commentary On The Tpp Final Ip Chapter Published 6 November 2015 – Part 1 – General Provisions, Trade Mark, Gis, Designs, Kimberlee G. Weatherall

Kimberlee G Weatherall

This note comments on the TPP general provisions and rules on trade mark, GIs, and designs. It also compares each provision to multilateral and bilateral treaties. The material here is necessarily preliminary and does not purport to be complete. It is published on the basis that it may assist others’ analysis and commentary.

Section By Section Commentary On The Tpp Final Ip Chapter Published 5 November 2015 – Part 3 - Enforcement, Kimberlee G. Weatherall

Kimberlee G Weatherall

This note comments on the TPP IP enforcement provisions (final text). It also compares each provision to multilateral and bilateral treaties. The material here is necessarily preliminary and does not purport to be complete. It is published on the basis that it may assist others’ analysis and commentary. Note: version 0.1 adds fn 1 reference to Bridy on ISP safe harbors.

International Trade V. International Property Lawyers: Globalization And The Brazilian Legal Profession, Vitor Martins Dias

Maurer Theses and Dissertations

This work analyzes a distinctive characteristic of the globalizing Brazilian legal profession. Namely, intellectual property (IP) lawyers who once were leaders in opening the Brazilian economy and were key players in cross-border transactions are now losing ground to their peers with an expertise in international trade. The thesis of this article is that the manner in which Brazilian lawyers are being educated is in shambles. Generally speaking, Brazilian legal education has, overall, become degraded and provincial. Yet, Brazilian international trade lawyers, unlike Brazilian IP-lawyers, have overcome their deficient legal training by seeking legal education abroad. By traveling overseas, especially to …

Pharmaceutical Patents And The Human Right To Health The Contested Evolution Of The Transnational Legal Order On Access To Medicines, Laurence R. Helfer

Faculty Scholarship

Disputes over the regulation of access to medicines are occurring in multiple transnational, national, and local venues. Competing groups of states and non-state actors shift horizontally and vertically among these forums in an effort to develop competing legal rules over the propriety of granting intellectual property (IP) protection to newly developed life-saving drugs. This chapter applies the framework of Transnational Legal Orders (Terence C. Halliday & Gregory Shaffer, eds. 2015) to explain the origins of these controversies and their consequences. The chapter argues that the current state of affairs arose from a clash between two previously discrete TLOs—one relating to …

Moving All-In With The World Trade Organization: Ignoring Adverse Rulings And Gambling With The Future Of The Wto, Paul Rothstein

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Submission On The Ip Chapter Of The Korea-Australia Free Trade Agreement, Kimberlee G. Weatherall

Kimberlee G Weatherall

Tpp – Australian Section-By-Section Analysis Of The Enforcement Provisions Of The August Leaked Draft, Kimberlee G. Weatherall

Kimberlee G Weatherall

This paper analyses the leaked 30 August 2013 text of the TPP IP Chapter from an Australian perspective, focusing on the enforcement provisions only. The goal is to assess the compatibility of provisions in the current draft with Australian law and Australia’s international obligations: including TRIPS and the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA).

Reading the IP provisions of the TPP IP chapter leak dated August 2013 is a maddening, dispiriting process. The provisions are written like legislation, not treaty, suggesting a complete lack of good faith and trust on the part of the negotiating countries. There are subtle tweaks of …

U.S.-Latin American Free Trade Agreements And Access To Medicine, Dominique Lochridge-Gonzales

Dominique Lochridge-Gonzales

U.S.-Latin American Free Trade Agreements and Access to Medicine analyzes the effects of FTA provisions on access to medicine. Access to medicine lies at the heart of the crossroads between the international human right to health and international intellectual property law delineated in TRIPS. True availability of essential medicines to millions of people depends on a balance between the formations of these medicines in the first place (through rewarding innovation) and promulgating rules that allow for practicable access to those medicines. FTAs provide a method for implementing the right to health by fostering practicable access to essential medicines in the …

Private Governance Of Knowledge: Societally-Crafted Intellectual Properties Regimes, Dan Wielsch

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

The evolutionary challenge global society faces is the decentralized development of legal rules that multilaterally protect social autonomies from violating each other. At the national level, democratic constitutions provide for the resolution of conflicts between different normative worlds, although the focus here is certainly on the protection of autonomies from political encroachment. However, political constitutions make sure that legal orders consider a plurality of normative perspectives. In contrast, international lawmaking can exclusively link to a specific social rationality, lacking any impartial forum for normative reconciliation. This is of special importance for the governance of intellectual resources. The incorporation of international …

The U.S. Proposal For An Intellectual Property Chapter In The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, Sean Flynn, Brook Baker, Margot Kaminski, Jimmy Koo

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This article takes advantage of the breach in the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiation’s secrecy to contribute to a new and growing collection of published scholarship on leaked proposals for international intellectual property agreements as they are being negotiated. We begin with the general provisions of the agreement, which define its relationship to the multilateral system. We then progress to analysis of some of the most important copyright, patent and data protection, and enforcement sections of the proposal, before providing some concluding observations. Our ultimate conclusion is that the U.S. proposal, if adopted, would upset the current international framework balancing the interests …

Collateral Damage: The Impact Of Acta And The Enforcement Agenda On The World's Poorest People , Andrew Rens

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Acta's Constitutional Problems: The Treaty Is Not A Treaty, Sean Flynn

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

On the eve of the United States’ entry into the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (“ACTA”), there is considerable confusion as to just what legal effect the agreement will have. In written answers to Senator Ron Wyden, the United States Trade Representative (“USTR”) went to lengths to describe ACTA as non-binding, asserting that “ACTA does not constrain Congress’ authority to change U.S. law,” and that it would operate only as an “Executive Agreement” that “can be implemented without new legislation.” But European negotiators have described the agreement to their legislature in very different terms, asserting that ACTA is “a binding international agreement …

Overcoming Babel’S Curse: Adapting The Doctrine Of Foreign Equivalents, Jonathan Skinner

Publications

No abstract provided.

Korea's Patent Policy And Its Impact On Economic Development: A Model For Emerging Countries?, Jay Erstling

Faculty Scholarship

The purpose of this paper will be to examine Korean patent policy as exemplified by its patent legislation and the activities of Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO). Part II will take a brief look at the rationale underpinning Korea's confidence in the power of the patent system to stimulate economic growth. Part III of the paper will look at the Korean Patent Act as an example of strong, comprehensive patent legislation that fully complies with international standards and responds well to the perceived needs of patent applicants. In order to provide a basis of comparison, reference will be made wherever …

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement: An Updated Analysis, Kimberlee G. Weatherall

Kimberlee G Weatherall

This paper provides an updated analysis of the issues posed by negotiations for the ACTA, as at November 2009.

The Graying Of The American Manufacturing Economy: Gray Markets, Parallel Importation, And A Tort Law Approach, Joseph Karl Grant

Journal Publications

This Article examines the history of the gray market in the United States through an analysis of both the domestic legislative framework and judicial treatment of gray market goods, primarily under trademark and copyright law. Part I of this Article provides a general introduction into the structural factors that cause parallel importation. Part II begins a discussion of trademarked goods by looking at the purposes of trademark law. Part III starts by discussing the relevant doctrines and provisions of the Copyright Act of 1976, which frame the gray market discussion. Part III concludes by examining the current debate and the …

2008 International Trade Decisions Of The Federal Circuit A Review Of Recent Decisions Of The United States Court Of Appeals For The Federal Circuit: Area Summaries, Jarrod Goldfeder

American University Law Review

The United States is the world’s largest importing country, with nearly $2 trillion in imports of goods during 2007. Given the ever- increasing volume of international trade, the United States has put in place an intricate body of laws designed to regulate the flow of goods and has created federal agencies responsible for the enforcement of those laws, including U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”), the U.S. Department of Commerce (“Commerce”), the U.S. International Trade Commission (“ITC” or “Commission”), and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (“USTR”). Each agency is charged with different responsibilities over the fair and efficient …

Is China A ‘Currency Manipulator’?: The Legitimacy Of China’S Exchange Regime Under The Current International Legal Framework, Bryan Mercurio, Celine Sze Ning Leung

Bryan Mercurio

While most economists are in agreement that China’s currency is undervalued, economists are less certain as to the effect of the undervaluation. Despite the equivocal data, critics of China’s regime claim that the undervaluation leads to cheaper, and therefore increased exported goods, while at the same time raising the price of imported goods. For this reason, U.S. lawmakers perpetually raise the issue and periodically initiate legislation, which would deem China a “currency manipulator” and thus trigger retaliatory measures. Lawyers are less certain whether there can be a multilateral solution to the perceived problem.

With the existing legal literature consisting mostly …