Intellectual Property and International Dispute Resolution

Investor dispute tribunals, as provided for in many bilateral and multilateral trade agreements, are suspected of intransparency, because proceedings are not public, of unequal treatment, because they give foreign investors a right of action where domestic investors would have none, and of undermining democracy, because they allow democratically enacted laws to be challenged with no possibility of appeal. In this important book – the first in-depth treatment of the interface between intellectual property rights and international dispute resolution – a number of prominent legal scholars and practitioners examine the extent to which challenges against domestic legislation based on an alleged direct or indirect expropriation of intellectual property rights may be justified.

The contributions cover such aspects as:

• history and current practice of international dispute resolution;
• direct application of international agreements by national courts;
• comparison of investor dispute settlement tribunals with other fora such as the WTO or domestic courts for determining compliance with international intellectual property standards;
• what can be considered ‘investment’ and ‘expropriation’ in the field of intellectual property;
• legislative freedom to operate when limiting intellectual property rights, particularly in the field of health and safety; and
• how societal interests could influence future legislation in the field of intellectual property law.

One major focus of the book are the challenges against tobacco plain packaging legislation before domestic and international courts and tribunals.

The book’s detailed analysis of the nature of investor dispute tribunals and how they may conflict with public interests – and its exploration of possible alternatives – is sure to be of great interest to policymakers, practitioners and scholars in both international trade law and intellectual property law.