ISDS Case Map
medicines
For the United States, intellectual property rights represent the single most valuable asset in light of the new reality of information-based economies and where they derive their national wealth. The supremacy of the US as a global power depends on how effective it is in acquiring and maintaining its ownership of knowledge assets.
Opponents of a free trade area (FTA) agreement with the US have lashed out at the government's proposed amendment of Thai patent law to facilitate the United States' patenting of drugs and living organisms in Thailand. They fear it would lead to greater control of the country's resources by American firms.
Reeling from the negative publicity and pro-access to medicines messaging in Thailand and internationally, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) has mounted a public relations campaign full of distortions and omissions.
Will the hands that save the lives of Thailand's sick be tied once a free trade deal between this country and the United States is signed, later this year?
US proposal on 'patents' and on 'measures related to certain regulated products' for negotiation with Thailand under the IPR chapter of the current US-Thailand FTA talks.
Critics argue that the biodiversity provisions in the US-Peru FTA do not improve the status quo to effectively tackle concerns over misappropriation of biodiversity and TK.
Ecuador, along with Colombia, is reopening Wednesday in Washington joint negotiation over the copyright issue in the Free Trade Agreement with the US, despite growing refusal in Quito.
On the last day of the sixth round of Thai-US Free Trade Area talks, several academics and non-governmental bodies were invited to discuss their concerns with US negotiators on aspects of intellectual property rights, with an emphasis on pharmaceutical and life form patents. For a number of reasons, only one academic showed up.
The network of 11 civil society organisations which showed its opposition to the Thai-US Free Trade Area (FTA) negotiations earlier this week in Chiang Mai Friday reaffirmed its intention to continue protesting the talks.
The Thai-US free-trade talks hit a snag yesterday after the head Thai negotiator for intellectual-property rights declared demands by the US for Thailand to tighten up drug patenting as “unacceptable”.
