Publications

By: Jean-Frédéric Morin , 2005-04-01

 Patentability in US Free Trade Agreements (only available in French). The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) is no longer the “new frontier” of the international patent regime. Indeed, the United States and other developed countries negotiate bilateral ‘TRIPs-plus’ treaties with developing countries. This article compares patentability provisions of the recently-concluded U.S. Free Trade Agreements with the TRIPs Agreement. It identifies five significant changes : 1) bilateral treaties provide a 12 months grace period to inventors ; 2) the industrial application requirement is defined has a “specific, substantial, and credible utility” ; 3) a ceiling to the disclosure requirement is introduced ; 4) the plant protection regime is reinforced ; 5) the non-discrimination rule is omitted. The comparative analysis shows that bilateralism allows the US to bypass the dead-end debates at the TRIPs Council and to build alliances for upcoming multilateral negotiations at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).