Bilateralism in Intellectual Property

This paper examines the way in which bilateral trade negotiations (Bilateral Investment Treaties and Bilateral Intellectual Property Agreements) are being used by the USA and others to build more extensive protection for intellectual property than that set out in the WTO TRIPS Agreement. It uses examples of recent US/EU negotiations with countries such as Nicaragua, Jordan, and Mexico to illustrate how developing countries are being drawn into a highly complex multilateral/bilateral web of intellectual property standards over which they have little control