Jayashree Watal speaks on International Trade and Intellectual Property Rights

Last Wednesday, Ms. Jayashree Watal from the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva, Switzerland, engaged students and faculty in a lively and informative discussion on “Developing Countries' Participation in TRIPS and Post-TRIPS Negotiations."  TRIPS is an acronym for Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, and the discussion covered issues such as open source software, art that is created from other copyrighted works, and pharmaceutical drug patents.  Ms. Watal gave us insights into the TRIPS negotiation process at the WTO.  The discussion also compared and contrasted the different international organizations in which related discussions take place, noting the differences between the WTO, the International Telecommunications Union, the World Intellectual Property Organization and newer initiatives like the Internet Governance Forum, which was mandated by the United Nations-Secretary General and World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).  We also discussed the pros and cons of having an organization like the WTO with dispute settlement mechanisms to uphold trade laws and how developing countries might benefit from this. 

Counsellor in the Intellectual Property Division of the World Trade Organization from February 2001, Ms. Watal has more than twenty-two years of experience in government in India, of which ten years was devoted to policy, diplomacy, research and administration on intellectual property rights.  In Fall 2009 Ms. Watal is teaching "Trade, Intellectual Property, and Public Health" at Georgetown Law School. Students attending the Geneva Summer Abroad Program organized by Georgetown and CCT have also been fortunate to hear from Ms. Watal as part of a class on the Global Services Economy.