Examining how trade agreements are interpreted both in trade tribunals and in the United Kingdom, this innovative book provides a well-rounded exploration of the numerous UK free trade agreements, including the UK–EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement, and their legal and policy implications for intellectual property.

Intellectual Property and Free Trade Agreements presents the papers of the sixth IP conference organised by the Macau Institute of European Studies (IEEM) on intellectual property law and the economic challenges for Asia. The objective of the conferences is to provide up-to-date information on developments in global intellectual property law and policy and their impact on regional economic and cultural development. The current volume deals with the implications of free trade agreements for the international framework of intellectual property law, a topic of enormous economic and legal importance given the increasing number of free trade agreements in force or under negotiation.

This book is highly topical. The shift from the multilateral WTO negotiations to bilateral and regional Free Trade Agreements has been going on for some time, but it is bound to accelerate after the WTO Doha round of negotiations is now widely regarded as a failure. However, there is a particular regional angle to this topic as well. After concluding that further progress in the Doha round was unlikely, Pacific Rim nations recently have progressed with the negotiations of a greatly expanded Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement that includes industrialised economies and developed countries such as the United States, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, recently emerged economies such as Singapore, but also several developing countries in Asia and Latin America such as Malaysia and Vietnam. US and EU led efforts to conclude FTAs with Asia-Pacific nations are also bound to accelerate again, after a temporary slowdown in the negotiations following the change of government in the United States and the expiry of the US President’s fast-track negotiation authority. The book will provide an assessment of these dynamics in the world’s fastest growing region. It will look at the IP chapters from a legal perspective, but also put the developments into a socio-economic and political context. Many agreements in fact are concluded because of this context rather than for purely economic reasons or to achieve progress in fields like IP law. The structure of the book follows an outline that groups countries into interest alliances according to their respective IP priorities. This ranges from the driving forces of the EU, US and Japan, via Asia-Pacific resource-rich but IP poor economies such as Australia and New Zealand, recently emerged economies with strong IP systems such as Singapore and Korea to leading developing countries such as China and India and ‘second tier industrializing economies’ such as Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

This informative book examines the intellectual property (IP) provisions of the sub-regional and continental Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) that have been implemented in Africa to facilitate trade and promote economic integration. Michael Blakeney and Getachew Mengistie Alemu explain how FTAs can be used when setting IP standards in order to influence the ongoing effort to develop effective international agreements with Africa.

Summary: Trade between the United States and the eighteen countries of the Middle East and North Africa continues to grow at a steady pace, especially with countries which have signed trade agreements with the United States.

​​​​ ​This book focuses on a new generation of bilateral and regional agreements negotiated by the EU with developing countries and which include intellectual property (IP) provisions setting standards exceeding those of the TRIPS Agreement. The contributions critically analyse the IP standards found in these agreements; their potential for reforming the international IP system; the implications for the multilateral IP system and other areas of international law such as human rights; and the often neglected topic of implementing the IP obligations in these agreements.​

Biotechnology is at the heart of heated debates about ethics, safety, economic development, and about the control over the biological materials and technologies used. The latter, grossly called biodiversity issues relating to the application of intellectual property, has been the subject of a wealth of literature. Yet, the situation of animal genetic resources specifically has only marginally been addressed so far. Many books and articles address ‘biotechnology and agriculture’, but have only plants and seeds in mind. Case-law and specific regulation is equally scarce. Exacerbated by the so-called ‘erosion of animal genetic resources’, climate change, the globalization of the market-place, and a strong concentration of markets, animal genetic resources however demand specific analysis and adjustments in intellectual property law. The decoupling of rights over animal genetic resources as an abstract concept, from those over the concrete animals is a fact today. The application of patents in this context became a full-fledged part of the management of animal genetic resources. This monograph analyzes against this background the impact of the patent system on ownership traditions in agriculture, on animal welfare, and on biodiversity. It looks at how those factors in turn are likely to affect the shape of patent law, and how they should affect it. The author hereby focuses on important specific issues arising, including the following: the underlying elements deciding on the shape of regulation – innovation, economic development, agriculture, human rights, animal welfare, the conservation of resources, and equal trading conditions; the continuing applicability of trademarks, geographical indications, copyright, and trade secrets; patentability rules and exclusions; the extension of patent rights over progeny; the meaning of ‘essentially biotechnological processes’; the legal definitions of ‘morality’ and ‘ordre public’ in the context of animal welfare; and the future of international patent law in the context of global governance theories. With detailed investigation of how three major jurisdictions – the European Union, the United States, and Canada – have regulated the matter, the book highlights unresolved issues in the laws dealing with animal genetic resources. How do the usual principles of patent law affect ownership over animals in agriculture? To what extent is patent law in accordance with neighbouring fields of regulation, with relation to animal welfare? How can intellectual property be used to alter, stimulate, or tackle developments in the realm of the conservation and promotion of biodiversity? Questions like these are asked, checked upon the more technical country studies; and then used to put to test the adequacy of international patent regulation in a final chapter. As a deeply informed overview of the arguments and discussion points, this is the only book of its kind. It links general discussions to the often technical and complicated patent regulations, in the specific context of animal genetic resources. It is sure to bring lawyers in the field closer to the policy debates; and decision makers closer to the precise idiosyncrasies of patent law.

The Research Handbook on Intellectual Property Rights and Arbitration explores the complementary relationship between state court adjudication and arbitral proceedings in the context of intellectual property rights. Presenting contemporary research and insight into the scholarly debates on the topic, it provides a comprehensive overview of arbitrating intellectual property disputes on an international scale.