Romulus
Although the founding of Rome is a mystery, the myths of its origin hold that Romulus and Remus, the sons of Mars and Rhea Silvia, abandoned by their parents on the banks of the river Tiber, were suckled by a she-wolf, Lupa. Upon reaching adulthood, Romulus and Remus vied for control of Rome. According to Wikipedia,
[o]nce Romulus and Remus arrived at the Palatine Hill, the two argued over where the exact position of the city should be. Romulus was set on building the city upon the Palatine, but Remus wanted to build the city on the strategic and easily fortified Aventine Hill… They agreed to settle their argument by testing their abilities as augurs and by the will of the deities. Each took a seat on the ground apart from one another, and, according to Plutarch, Remus saw six vultures (which were considered to be sacred to Mars, their father), while Romulus saw twelve.[7]
Enraged by Romulus’s victory, Remus first claimed he should have won since he had seen his six vultures first, and when Romulus began digging a trench where his city’s boundary was to run, he ridiculed and obstructed the work. Eventually, Remus leapt across the trench which implied that the city fortifications would be easily breached and was killed.
The Company
In case readers are hard pressed in finding a direct link between Romulus, Remus, a she-wolf and eighteen vultures with questions of innovation + access, access to knowledge, trade policy, patents and copyright, the answer lays in this enigmatic website, “Romulus: Global Issues Management“. At first glance, the website captivates the reader with photos of crop circles, Petronas Tower window cleaners, Petra, a zebra/horse hybrid, water cannons and a martial arts display.
Romulus Global Issue Management was founded in 2007. The company website’s elegant prose provides clarification about what it does:
Romulus consultants are experts in international public policy and have decades of experience resolving market access barriers around the world. By developing and managing the implementation of effective international business, government relations and public communications strategies, they help top executives at leading companies, associations and governments around the world navigate and succeed in an increasingly complex global business environment.
In the United States, Romulus consultants maintain powerful relationships with decision-makers and opinion leaders on trade, investment, innovation and competition issues. Around the world, our consultants have relationships with senior policymakers and local execution firms in more than 80 countries on six continents. In both the U.S. and abroad, Romulus consultants can help you deliver a targeted message to a specific individual or manage a campaign to broadly improve the public and political landscape for your issue.
Primarily, our work incorporates issue monitoring and intelligence, government relations, public relations and the development of coalitions, content and data to validate client positions. For our clients, from trade associations to private equity funds to start-ups to large multinationals, we are engaged to manage both periods of crisis or transition and long-term public policy campaigns.
The Team
Also of interest is the Romulus team. Below are some profiles taken from the Romulus website.
Victoria Espinel
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Professor Espinel of George Mason University School of Law serves as Senior Counselor for International IP and Innovation at Romulus. Ms. Espinel formerly served as Assistant United States Trade Representative for Intellectual Property and Innovation at USTR in the Executive Office of the President.
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While at USTR, Ms Espinel oversaw intellectual property and innovation policy negotiations with China, Russia, Brazil and India, in over a dozen free trade agreements and at the WTO; was principally involved in WTO litigation against the EC and China; chaired the US-India trade group on intellectual property; coordinated US trade policy on pharmaceutical issues; and trade policy on the intersection between intellectual property, competition rules and standards; and was a principal creator of the STOP initiative.
Albert Tramposch
Mr. Tramposch is former Director of Industrial Property Law at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva, where he oversaw negotiation of international treaties and instruments on patents and trademarks, served as liaison to the World Trade Organization TRIPS Council, the European Patent Office and national governments, advised developing countries on implementation of treaties and modernization of their national laws, and initiated WIPO involvement with Internet domain name dispute resolution. In addition to his work at WIPO, Albert has practiced IP law in the United States and internationally, and taught at several US law schools, including as Director of intellectual property programs at two of those schools, and served as a member of the USPTO Trademark Policy Advisory Committee. Recently, he advised the Government of Slovenia during their Presidency of the European Union, on matters relating to intellectual property and public health, including access to essential medicines. In that capacity, he was a key negotiator of the World Health Organization Global Strategy on Public Health and IP, adopted in May 2008. Mr. Tramposch is a registered US patent attorney and a joint citizen of the US and Slovenia.
In addition to his career at WIPO and his role as adviser to the Slovenian government during the IGWG negotiations, Mr. Tramposch served as an Intellectual Property Expert to the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the recently concluded 124th session of the WHO Executive Board. The Czech Republic currently holds the Presidency of the European Union.
Monitoring and Intelligence
Even more enlightening is the Romulus Case Study II: Mitigating Business Risks and Containing Threats.
Challenge
A large international conference threatened to provide a powerful platform for protesters from around the world to showcase and promote regulatory actions a particular country had taken against a client’s products. The protesters were circulating a petition in support of the country’s actions and were seeking tens of thousands of signatures from prominent citizens worldwide. Several other countries were weighing similar actions, and the event and petition risked tipping the scales unless isolated alternative voices were bolstered and mobilized to balance the debate.
Strategy and Execution
Ahead of the conference, Romulus consultants launched a global government relations and strategic communications campaign designed to demonstrate broad and united opposition to the country’s actions and underscore the risks of such actions to other nations. The campaign resulted in numerous letters and statements critical of the country by top government and NGO leaders in other nations, opinion articles and press reports in leading publications around the world highlighting harm done to the country’s international reputation and to its own people, and legislative and other moves against the country in key capitals. Leveraging their extensive network of global media contacts and proven relationships with advisors in more than 30 countries, Romulus consultants provided on the ground intelligence to the client throughout the conference and ensured reporters covering the event were fully briefed on the other side of the story.Results
Conference protestors generated no meaningful press coverage and secured less than a thousand petition signatures in support of the country’s actions. No other country took similar action against the client’s products
If the founding myth of Rome augurs true, Remus, Sabines, governments, public interest groups, and the press should heed the lessons learned from Romulus and Remus.