The Ministry of Trade has told TEU that academic intellectual property rights could be affected by a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement with seven other countries, including the United States.

“Academics are both creators and users of intellectual property,” a ministry spokesperson told TEU. “The intellectual property produced by academics – or academic property rights – could include inventions or creations protected through, for example, patents and copyright. Any changes to New Zealand’s intellectual property settings as a result of a TPP agreement could therefore impact on New Zealand academic intellectual property rights.”

Intellectual property has been a contentious point of debate during the trade negotiations with USA negotiators attempting to strengthen intellectual property rights. However, Prof Susy Frankel of Victoria University in Wellington has cautioned against this:

“If New Zealand, however, is ever to develop to a knowledge economy and to increase investment in research and development then trade negotiators need to plan for that possibility, and not stifle such opportunities through agreeing on too much increased intellectual property protection in order to achieve other trade goals.”

The ministry says, at this stage, the potential parties to the agreement have not discussed applying a uniform approach to the treatment of inventions or creations made by academics under contract to government-funded institutions (e.g. universities).

“Last year, New Zealand’s intellectual property negotiators undertook a series of stakeholder consultations to help inform our position on intellectual property in the TPP negotiations. Officials in the Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade led these consultations, and included extensive input from academic institutions, libraries and museums. Officials intend to undertake a further round of consultations with interested stakeholders to update them on progress in the negotiations to date, and to seek further views on potential impacts of a TPP agreement.”