Investor-State Dispute Settlement Mechanism and Intellectual Property Matters

Abstract

The proposed IP and Investment Chapters in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) and the recent North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) investor dispute notifications by Eli Lilly against Canada has initiated the discussion concerning the impact of introducing intellectual property rights (IPR) in the purview of investment chapters of trade agreements. In this paper we will try to examine the effect of treating IP as an investment in the trade agreements and utilization of ISDS to resolve IP matters by way of analyzing the IPR cases that have been brought before the courts by the foreign investors in various countries.

Keywords: Investor State Dispute Settlement, Intellectual property rights, Trade mark, Patents, International law, Bi-lateral agreements