TPP Archives

My appearance before the Trade Committee on the TPP

Here are my introductory remarks to the House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade studying the TPP earlier today.

I would like to thank the committee for inviting me to appear today to provide input on the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

I am a senior partner with the law firm McCarthy Tétrault and am the former chair of its Intellectual Property Law Group.

I am an adjunct professor at Osgoode Hall Law School where I teach intellectual property law.

I am here today in my personal capacity and not representing any clients.…

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New Zealand term extension estimate clearly inaccurate says study

Opponents of the TPP such as Michael Geist have claimed that extending the term of copyright by 20 years if Canada joins the TPP could cost Canadians hundreds of millions of dollars. These claims, which are inconsistent with a Canadian study conducted for Industry Canada by Prof. Hollander, have been premised on a 2009 New Zealand estimate which suggested that the costs of a term extension to New Zealand could be (NZ) $55 million per year.

The New Zealand estimate has now been thoroughly reviewed by two prominent economists who concluded that the estimate “is clearly incorrect, and indeed seriously over-estimates costs”.…

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My Senate Committee appearance on the TPP

Earlier today I appeared before the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade – Multilateral, Regional and Bilateral Trade Agreements. The Committee’s focus was on CETA and the TPP.

My initial remarks to the Committee are set out below.

I would like to thank the committee for inviting me to appear today to provide input on the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

I am here today in my personal capacity and not representing any clients.

The TPP has been heralded as a 21^st century trade agreement.…

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Clarifying what the TPP IP provisions mean in Canada for the Innovative Life Sciences Sector

This is a guest blog post by Declan Hamill, Chief of Staff and Vice President, Legal Affairs, Innovative Medicines Canada.

Innovative Medicines Canada is the association of leading innovative pharmaceutical companies dedicated to improving the health of Canadians through the discovery and development of new medicines and vaccines. Our community represents the men and women working for more than 50 member companies which invest more than $1 billion in research and development (R&D) each year to fuel Canada’s knowledge-based economy, contributing over $3 billion to the Canadian economy.…

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Grasping at straws: the trouble with “The Trouble with the TPP”, a further reply to Michael Geist

I recently had the privilege of speaking about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) at the Fordham 24^th Annual Intellectual Property Law and Policy Conference, a stellar international IP conference. The other speakers on my panel were Probir Mehta (lead U.S. negotiator of the IP portion of the TPP), Pedro Velasco Martins (lead EU negotiator of the IP portion of the TTIP), and Daren Tang (lead Singapore negotiator of the IP portion of the TPP). The title of the panel was “Examination of TPP & TTIP”.…

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CD Howe rejects IP criticisms of TPP and CETA

The C.D. Howe Institute released a report earlier today, National Priorities 2016: At the Global Crossroads: Canada’s Trade Priorities for 2016, authored by Daniel Schwanen. One of the key recommendations is to boost market access for Canadian producers by ratifying the CETA and the TPP.

The report also touches briefly on two key intellectual property issues associated with the treaties, pharmaceutical patents and copyright. On these issues, the report stated the following:

Patents seek to encourage innovation by providing firms or individuals a monopoly over new and useful products for a limited period of time before competitors are allowed to offer their own versions.

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Does the TPP Protect Canadian Cultural Policy?

This is a guest post by Peter Grant. Peter S. Grant is Counsel at McCarthy Tétrault LLP. He is an expert on communications and cultural policy, and the co-author of Blockbusters and Trade Wars: Popular Culture in a Globalized World (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2004), a book focused on the interrelationship of trade law with cultural policy.

There is an inherent conflict between free trade agreements and cultural policy. Unless measures that support local culture are exempted from these agreements, there is a risk that the principle of “national treatment” (the free trade rule that foreign products must be given the same treatment as local products) might override those measures.…

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Intellectual property and the TPP: my Bloomberg TV interview

I was interviewed by Bloomberg TV yesterday on the topic of fears expressed over the intellectual property portions of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. My interview on the TPP can be accessed below. For more detail, you can see my ope-ed in the Financial Post Why Canada has nothing to fear over TPP and Intellectual Property and my more detailed analysis of the IP and e-commerce provisions here.

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Why Canada has nothing to fear over TPP and Intellectual Property – my op-ed in the FP

This is a copy of my op-ed published in the Financial Post. As the article notes, the views expressed are further elaborated on my blog. See, TPP and trade secrets: a wonderful idea and TPP, copyright, e-commerce and digital policy: a reply to Michael Geist.

The intellectual property chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has been misunderstood and attacked by several commentators, and the public is understandably confused. Much has been misinterpreted by those who oppose the TPP, or at least its intellectual property (IP) provisions.…

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TPP and trade secrets: a wonderful idea

The intellectual property chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is certainly misunderstood. An example is Article 18.78 which sets minimum standards for trade secret protection among TPP partners. Prof. Dan Breznitz, in a recent Op-Ed in the Globe and Mail, Trans-Pacific Partnership is a wonderful idea – for China, claims it will “seriously restrict entrepreneurship, diminish competition and limit the basic economic freedom of individuals”. He says that, as a result, the TPP is “The delight of Beijing”.

The majority of his article focuses on the perceived problems with Article 18.78 of the treaty which requires parties to provide certain types of protection for trade secrets.…

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