A Story of Convergence of ipr Regimes: The ipr Chapter in the China-Korea Free Trade Agreement

Abstract

The signature of the free trade agreement between China and Korea (China-Korea fta) on 1 June 2015 marked the first of this type in North-eastern Asia. Noteworthy is that Chapter 15 thereof, which has 31 articles, is dedicated to intellectual property rights (ipr). The ipr chapter covers general principles, copyright and related rights, trademarks, patents and utility model, genetic resources, traditional knowledge and folklore, plant variety protection, undisclosed information, and industrial design. This paper examines the ipr provisions in the China-Korea fta against the background of the evolving international regime for ipr protection and particularly the ipr provisions in the existing ftas which China has concluded and those Korea has concluded respectively, and then provides a critical evaluation of the ipr provisions in the China-Korea fta. It argues that China-Korea fta is a result of the convergence of various ipr regimes that both countries are shaping separately or jointly, and may serve as a model for upcoming ftas.

Intellectual monopoly in global value chains

“…The US, its close Latin American allies and European countries were the first to be involved, but the movement spread-out in Asia in the 2000s, as Japan and China engaged in several PTAs with IP provisions (see Figure 7). Although China is still not involved in any such agreement with the US or the EU, it has signed in 2014 and 2015 agreements containing comprehensive chapters on IPRs with Australia, Switzerland and Korea, which signals a Chinese convergence towards the strict international IP regime championed by high-income countries (Guo, 2016). The overwhelming dominance of the North in IP The increasing diffusion of PTAs including IPRs provision indicates a global tightening of IPRs.…”