(Washington, D.C.) –  Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today released a new report entitled “The Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Agreement and Intellectual Property.”  The report examines the effect of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) summary on intellectual property (IP), including copyright and online piracy, patents and trademarks, and biologic drugs.  (The complete TPPA was released this morning.)

Congress approved the Trade Priorities and Accountability Act (TPA) on June 24, 2015.  TPA granted “fast-track” authority to the White House for trade agreements and provided Congress with a number of critical transparency provisions, including the ability to scrutinize the agreement for 30 days before it is made public.  After it is made public, the president is required to wait another 60 days before the agreement can be signed. 

On October 5, 2015, negotiations for the TPPA concluded and a summary of the 30 chapters of the agreement was released.  Chapter 18 of the agreement specifically discusses the rights and responsibilities of each TPP member nation in protecting IP.  The 12 TPPA member nations are Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam. 

The summary of the TPPA reveals that efforts to weaken copyright protections failed and countries that sign the agreement will be held to the higher standards found in the U.S.  Countries that sign the TPPA will also be required to protect brands and trademarks.  These and other provisions related to enforcement and administration should reduce uncertainty related to the protection of IP in the TPP countries.

However, the biggest stumbling block related to IP for moving the TPPA forward will be the provisions related to biologics.  The U.S. has 12 years of data exclusivity; Canada and Japan have eight years; and the rest of the TPPA nations either have either five or zero years.  Despite the current U.S. law, the Obama administration has been trying since 2011 to change the exclusivity to seven years.  It appears that U.S. negotiators transferred the President’s desire for a shorter regulatory exclusivity to the TPPA of either five or eight years, and acceded to the demands of member countries, many of which have a questionable record on intellectual property.

 “Over the long term, trade agreements have proven to be advantageous to the U.S. and global economies,” said CAGW President Tom Schatz.  “The newly released TPPA full text must therefore be thoroughly examined with that in mind.”

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government.

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