WTO Appellate Body 2005 Report

Good morning from a VERY cold Edinburgh - seem to have gone from 44 to -4.... Among the snippets awaiting attention was the 2005 report of the WTO Appellate Body.

As previously blogged, and recognised by (many) others, the existence of the WTO Dispute Settlement System could play a major role in the future development of IP at national and international level. The statistics in the report reveal an interesting perspective on this.

Firstly, the Appellate Body since 1996 has only heard 3 cases on TRIPS (the panels have heard more); and secondly that, perhaps surprisingly given growing consensus that the DSS isn't quite turning out the way the US thought it might, the US and the EC are by far the biggest "customers" of the Appellate Body. However, there is a respectable, if much smaller, involvement from Japan, and then from Canada, Brazil, India, Mexico and then New Zealand. Further, many developing countries, while not main parties to complaints, are being involveed in the process as third participants.

These outcomes indicate that (bizarrely) IP is not at the centre of the WTO, and also that there is scope for optimism in terms of the DSS in the future being able to adjudicate over disputes involving a broad range of countries and interests.