Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The United States today said China's request for dispute settlement consultations at the World Trade Organization is "baseless," as the recent US measures against imports of Chinese steel and aluminum are not safeguards and so do not warrant the $3 billion in retaliation subsequently announced by China. Nevertheless, the US said it is willing to hold consultations with China, but not related to the WTO Agreement on Safeguards.
The Trump administration today (3 April) published a list of Chinese exports to the United States which could be subject to as much as US$ 50 billion in tariffs in retaliation for policies it says have forced the unfair transfer and theft of US technology and intellectual property.
The newly released United States government annual report on trade barriers for US exports provides a laundry list of issues it views as inhibiting US products and services from being treated fairly or sufficiently protected in its key trading partners. Among the many issues are many concerns about intellectual property rights, digital trade, broadcasting, pharmaceuticals and more.
The director general of the UN World Intellectual Property Organization recently briefed ambassadors in Geneva on 2017 results and the outlook for the organisation and the IP field. Here's a preliminary look at what they were told.
A United Kingdom industry association today issued a report on "cliff-edge" risks to intellectual property rights protection from the Brexit separation of the UK from the European Union, and asks for assurance the issues will be considered.
Another debate occurred today at the World Trade Organization between the United States and China over new US measures against China's alleged failure to fairly protect US intellectual property rights under domestic and international rules.
The World Trade Organization is heating up as the global venue for nations to air concerns about others' increasing action to protect markets and restrict trade, including as it relates to intellectual property rights protection. Today, a committee saw WTO members questioning each others' practices, including the new actions by the United States to investigate China for failure to protect US IP rights and unfairly disadvantaging foreign companies in China. And a new WTO case filed by the United States comes as the US had been critical of the multilateral trade body, but comments made by the US delegation today show its determination to more broadly improve WTO dispute resolution.
It has been considered for years that China has not been as strong as developed country trading partners in protecting intellectual property rights. Now, as China gains ground in building its own patent war chest, it has received a World Trade Organization challenge from the top patent-filing nation in the world, arguing that China's treatment of foreign companies' IP rights is unfavourable and its policies violate international trade rules.
After a difficult start to the week, World Intellectual Property Organization delegates on 23 March agreed on a revision of a set of articles of a potential treaty preventing the misappropriation of genetic resources through IP protection. The revised text will serve as a basis for further discussions at the next session of the WIPO committee dealing with the protection of genetic resources, in June. [Update: list of decisions now posted]
After the first suggested revision of potential treaty articles preventing the misappropriation of genetic resources was sent back to the drawing board this week, the second revision emerged today, for consideration by the World Intellectual Property Organization member states. Separately, a proposal by the committee chair to establish an expert group to meet prior to the next session of the committee meeting was positively received.
A proposed revision of articles that could become a World Intellectual Property Organization instrument protecting against the misappropriation of genetic resources met with strong resistance from some developing countries, asking that the committee revert to the previous version of the text. Their concern is what they see as new issues and concepts introduced this week, mainly by the United States. The committee chair decided to start a new process.
If the United States remains the champion of international patent applications at the World Intellectual Property Organization, China is now on its heels, and knocked Japan off the second place in 2017, according to numbers provided by WIPO. Southeast Asia is now a strong source of international applications, while developing countries still stand as a poor relation of the intellectual property system, though some of them are progressing steadily.