National policies and practices as regards the granting of and exceptions to patents, copyrights, and other types of intellectual property are often influenced by pressure from other countries. The United States is the most important source of pressure on intellectual… Continue Reading
Today, the Office of the United States Trade Representative hosted the hearing for the annual Special 301 Review. The review process includes a solicitation of written comments and hearing testimony, and results in the publication of the Special 301 Report.… Continue Reading
On 24 July 2015, 17 Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) tabled a draft Ministerial decision (published by the WTO secretariat on 29 July 2015) on “Non-violation and situation complaints” for “consideration at the 10th Ministerial Conference of the WTO” (Source: IP/C/W/607). The 10th Ministerial Conference of the WTO will take place in Nairobi from 15 December 2015 to 18 December 2015. Continue Reading
The Assemblies of the Member States of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) convenes its Fifty-Fourth Series of meetings in Geneva from 22 September 2014 to 30 September 2014. These Assemblies include, inter alia, meetings of the WIPO General Assembly, the WIPO Coordination Committee, the Paris Union Assembly, the Berne Union Assembly, the Madrid Union Assembly, the Lisbon Union Assembly, the Patent Cooperation Treaty Assembly, the WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) Assembly and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT) Assembly. Continue Reading
Brian Arthur Pomper is a partner at the law firm of Akin Gump.
Mr. Pomper formerly served as chief international trade counsel to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT). In that role, he was responsible for advising Chairman Baucus and other members of the Senate Finance Committee on all aspects of the Committee’s international trade and economic agenda.
PhRMA’s submission (7 February 2014, USTR-2013-0040) to USTR’s 2014 Special 301 Review requests USTR classify India as a Priority Foreign Country citing the fact that India “continues to embrace these damaging policies, especially its IP rules, by publicly highlighting them… Continue Reading
The National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) submission (7 February 2014, USTR-2013-0040) to USTR’s 2014 Special 301 Review requested USTR to designate India as a Priority Foreign Country and “conduct an out-of-cycle review of India to assess” Indian policies “across sectors,… Continue Reading
The National Association of Manufacturers’s (NAM) submission (7 February 2014, USTR-2013-0040) to USTR’s 2014 Special 301 Review requests that USTR designate India as a Priority Foreign Country citing concerns with India’s actions in multilateral fora including the UNFCCC, WTO and… Continue Reading
The Intellectual Property Owners Association’s (IPO) submission (7 February 2014, USTR-2013-0040) to USTR’s 2014 Special 301 Review expressed concern over various aspects of India’s policies including “India’s Forced Technology Transfer, Compulsory Licensing, and Lack of Effective IP Protection” and “Third… Continue Reading
The following are four US Department of State cables discussing the status of Thailand as regards the USTR Special 301 review. KEI recently received the cables from the US Department of State in response to an earlier FOIA request.