Trans-Pacific Partnership: draft Intellectual Property chapter

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was a trade agreement negotiated in confidence by 12 Pacific Rim countries: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam. On 13 November 2013 I published the consolidated, bracketed text of its Intellectual Property chapter, dated 30 August 2013 and obtained after a negotiating round in Brunei, shortly before a chief negotiators' meeting in Salt Lake City on 19–24 November.

The 95-page, 30,000-word text covers patents, copyright, trademarks and industrial design, together with a long section on enforcement, and records which countries supported or opposed each proposal. Reporting focused on proposals to extend patent terms, including for medicines, beyond 20 years and on measures against circumvention of copyright protection (The Guardian). I later published further TPP drafts, including environment and investment chapters and an updated IP chapter.

The 12 countries signed the TPP in February 2016; the United States withdrew from the agreement in January 2017 (BBC News).

I did not identify our source. Negotiating texts were not public at the time; The Guardian noted that even members of the US Congress could view only selected portions, under supervision. Partners we listed for the release were Fairfax Media (Australia), CIPER and Derechos Digitales (Chile), La Jornada (Mexico), The New Zealand Herald, and Knowledge Ecology International, McClatchy and Public Citizen (United States).