The Morning After: TRIPS-Plus, FTAS,and Wikileaks: Fresh Insights on the Implementation and Enforcement of IP Protection in Developing Countries

Abstract

I. INTRODUCTION
On August 30, 2011, Wikileaks released the latest batch of classified U.S. Department of State cables, revealing significant insights related to various aspects of the United States’ foreign and trade policy. In highlighting the severity of the leaks, The Economist remarked, “if Cyberspace had air, it would be thick with recrimination.”
1. Of particular interest to this paper are those cables related to the United States’ foreign policy implementing and
enforcing intellectual property in developing countries. The leaks draw a bleak picture, in which U.S. interest groups and local agents collaborate to achieve higher levels of intellectual property protection in developing countries, without taking into consideration the public interest and consumer rights of local communities. This “act of state-sponsored violence,” as some have proclaimed it,
2. jeopardizes the lives of millions of citizens across the globe. It also undermines the foundations of the global multilateral trading regime and its institutions, particularly the World Trade Organization (“WTO”), which was created by the global community in 1995 to put an end to bilateralism and multilaterally regulate global trade in goods and services.