Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Protection Of Test Data Under Article 39.3 Of The Trips Agreement: Advancements And Challenges After 25+ Years Of Interpretation And Application, Eric M. Solovy

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Among the types of intellectual property rights covered by the TRIPS Agreement, WTO Members must, pursuant to Article 39.3, protect certain test and other data submitted “as a condition of approving the marketing of pharmaceutical or of agricultural chemical products.” Such protection provides the incentives necessary for the biopharmaceutical industry to conduct the lengthy, expensive multi-phased clinical testing that is required to demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of a new drug or vaccine.

Test data protection has become increasingly more important to the development of new medicines in the past several years. That is in significant part because biologics (i.e., …

"The Little State Department": Hollywood And The Mpaa's Influence On U.S. Trade Relations, Kevin Lee

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

In this article, I argue that the U.S. government has actively advocated domestic film industry interests in bilateral and multilateral trade agreements because of Hollywood's importance to the U.S. economy, and also because of the MPAA's influential lobbying efforts. Furthermore, I show that the MPAA has intervened directly in bilateral trade relations to protect its interests, even when such interests may run counter to the benefit of the U.S. economy.

General Exclusion Orders Under Section 337, Gary M. Hnath

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Your company, Widgets Unlimited, imports foreign-made widgets into the United States. One day, you're informed that U.S. Customs & Border Protection (Customs) has detained your goods and is determining whether they infringe a patent owned by The American Widget Corporation, based on an exclusion order issued by the International Trade Commission (ITC) after a recent ITC investigation, titled Certain Widgets with Extra Shiny Surfaces. Since you were never a party to any proceeding at the ITC, and indeed, you never even knew American Widget had patents on its widgets, you conclude that there must be some mistake and wait for …

Trips' Rebound: An Historical Analysis Of How The Trips Agreement Can Ricochet Back Against The United States, Donald P. Harris

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Recently, scholars and commentators around the world have reexamined the role intellectual property rights (IPRs) play in hindering or helping developing countries. These scholars have questioned the doctrine the IPRs help developing countries by promoting economic development, increasing foreign direct investment, stimulating domestic innovation, and improving access to new technologies, and have concluded that imposing "Western-styled" intellectual property regimes (e.g., the U.S. patent regime) on developing countries harms those countries. In particular, such regimes fail to bring any of the purported benefits, while they impose many costs, including preventing people from obtaining life-saving drugs. This Article argues that it is …

The Spirit Of Trips And The Importation Of Medicines Made Under Compulsory License After The August 2003 Trips Council Agreement, Jessica J. Fayerman

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

The Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement has changed prospects for access to necessary medications in the developing world. The use of compulsory licensing for pharmaceutical products embodied in Article 31 of TRIPS has been a contentious issue. Prior to 2003, countries with no manufacturing capacity of their own were not allowed to import medicines made under compulsory license, rendering the protections of Article 31 of little use to them. The 2003 Motta Agreement changed this. This expansion of the compulsory licensing power is both an impractical solution and it dilutes the premises upon which TRIPS was originally …

Should China Provide Intellectual Property Protection For Genetically Modified Animals?, Ke Geng

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

The advent of recombinant genetic engineering techniques has revolutionized biotechnology. The biomedicine and biotechnology industries have extensively employed these techniques to improve the quality of agricultural crops and livestock and to create genetically modified organisms ("GMOs") in order to produce drugs. Since as much as twenty-five percent of the world's intellectual property-related trade involves biotechnology, many countries have realized the importance of providing intellectual property protection for biotechnological technologies, including GMOs. In the past decade, China's booming economy has helped make its biotechnological market the fastest growing market in the world. To stimulate innovation and attract private investment in its …

Knowledge, Legitimacy, Efficiency And The Institutionalization Of Dispute Settlement Procedures At The World Trade Organization And The World Intellectual Property Organization, Michael P. Ryan

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

International legal research regarding international economic dispute settlement tends to be a-theoretical. A theoretically-grounded analytic framework is employed in this article which draws from scholarship from political science, sociology, and economics regarding institutions and international governmental organizations. The knowledge-legitimacy-efficiency analytic framework is applied in this article to studies of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GA TT)/World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement in order to relate this relevant scholarship to the economic field under primary study, Internet domain names. GA TT/WTO knowledge regarding international trade law has thickened through multi-lateral trade negotiations and dispute settlement decisions. The WTO's legitimacy is …

Levi Strauss V. Tesco And E.U. Trademark Exhaustion: A Proposal For Change, Kimberly Reed

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

When the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") issued its final decision in the case of Levi Strauss & Co. v. Tesco Stores Ltd. in November 2001, affirming Levi Strauss' right to keep cut-price imported Levis out of the European Union ("E.U."), the general public was outraged at the perceived blow to consumer rights. The ECJ's decision to allow Levi Strauss to prohibit "gray market" imports of its jeans from the United States for resale in the United Kingdom at prices much cheaper than Levi Strauss' own U.K. prices was characterized as protecting "big business" at the expense of consumers. While …

The Limits Placed By Eec Law On Territorial Protection In Patent Licensing: A Case Study In Community Law-Making, Donald L. Holley

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

In this article, Mr. Holley examines the ways in which the EEC Commission's interpretations of the EEC Treaty, European Court decisions, and suggestions made by Member States and industry influence the development of EEC law. By focusing on the Commission's draft patent licensing regulation, the author identifies existing conflicts between preserving patent rights and the EEC objectives of protecting competition and the free flow of goods among the Member States.

The Value Of Territorial And Field-Of-Use Restrictions In The International Licensing Of Unpatented Know-How: An Empirical Study, Joel A. Bleeke, James A. Rahl

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Data concerning the international transfer of technology, particularly in the area of unpatented know-how, are relatively scarce. In this article, Mr. Bleeke and Professor Rahl present the results of one of the first empirical studies conducted in this field. The study, in which signifcant information was gathered from United States corporate licensing attorneys and executives, is focused upon the extent to which territorial and field-of-use restrictions are necessary to facilitate the international transfer of unpatented know-how. The results provide a clearer picturefor both policy makers and practitioners in the field.