[Cross posted on Heesob’s IP Blog] The followings were demanded by the U.S. negotiators but eventually withdrawn during the negotiation of FTA with South Korea. Patent term extension due to an approval delay: The US demanded a patent term extension…
[Updated Dec 3, 2013]. USTR released a document describing several policy changes in its Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement proposals on provisions related to the prices of medicines. It is not known whether these changes are related to public pressure…
A coalition of 22 trade groups have written a letter on the Trans Pacific Partnership to U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk that focuses mainly on services and investment. However, the letter also states that the TPP chapter on intellectual property…
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA. Negotiations of the Transpacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) have turned to discussions of the pharmaceutical reimbursement chapter today. This issue is highly controversial and represents a very recent shift in trade policy. There are only two previous free trade…
Heesob Nam recently requested me to give an opinion on whether the intellectual property provisions of the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement [KORUS] are fully consistent with U.S. law. The U.S. Congress did not change its intellectual property law in its…
Members of the Senate Finance Committee offered 97 amendments to legislation meant to implement the three bilateral free trade agreements pending in Congress at a “mark mock up” (which was boycotted by Republicans). Sen. Hatch offered 26 amendments to the…
Recent U.S. free trade agreements have included language regulating the way in which member countries manage their pharmaceutical drug coverage and reimbursement programs. The U.S.-Australia agreement was the first to such provisions, followed by the U.S.-Korea agreement which expanded upon…
The U.S. has recently begun to include in free trade agreements provisions regarding government health care programs which reimburse entities for prescription drugs. The U.S.-Australia free trade agreement was the first to include such provisions, followed by the U.S.-Korea Free…
Recent free trade agreements with Korea and Australia have included provisions regulating pharmaceutical reimbursement programs operated at the “central level of government” of member countries. Currently, the U.S. is in negotiations to complete the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement, which…
As the latest round of negotiations for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement starts this week in Vietnam, some member countries are publicly defending their prescription drug reimbursement programs. If the TPP agreement contains language similar to the…
The U.S. has recently begun to include in free trade agreements provisions regarding government health care programs which reimburse entities for prescription drugs. The U.S.-Australia free trade agreement was the first to include such provisions, followed by the U.S.-Korea Free…
Though negotiations are still underway on the South Korean – US Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA), the officially released version features significantly more strenuous provisions regarding IP enforcement and the Internet than those found in ACTA (Dec. 3, 2010 version).…