The Trans-Pacific Partnership: Intellectual Property and Trade in the Pacific Rim

This authoritative book explores copyright and trade in the Pacific Rim under the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a mega-regional trade deal. Offering a perceptive critique of the TPP, Matthew Rimmer highlights the dissonance between Barack Obama's ideals that the agreement would be progressive and comprehensive and the substance of the trade deal.

Rimmer considers the intellectual property chapter of the TPP, focusing on the debate over copyright terms, copyright exceptions, intermediary liability, and technological protection measures. He analyses the negotiations over trademark law, cybersquatting, geographical indications, and the plain packaging of tobacco products. The book also considers the debate over patent law and access to essential medicines, data protection and biologics, access to genetic resources, and the treatment of Indigenous intellectual property. Examining globalization and its discontents, the book concludes with policy solutions and recommendations for a truly progressive approach to intellectual property and trade.

This book will be a valuable resource for scholars and students of intellectual property law, international economic law, and trade law. Its practical recommendations will also be beneficial for practitioners and policy makers working in the fields of intellectual property, investment, and trade.

Matthew Rimmer, Professor of Intellectual Property and Innovation Law, Faculty of Business and Law, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia