ABSTRACT
US trade policy regarding Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) has evolved from an essentially "do nothing" approach in the earlier General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) rounds, to an extremely activist approach in the Uruguay round. The Tokyo Round of trade negotiations in the GATT signaled the first time the United States seriously considered IPR to be part of trade policy. Further, the US government believed that World Intellectual Property Organization and similar entities were useful for assisting countries to develop IPR laws and administration, but had limited utility in resolving disputes. Minimum standards have also been advocated for a number of specific issues such as patent term, pharmaceuticals, service marks, collective works, software, maskworks, broadcasting, process patents, and others. The U.S.T.R. points to the negotiations covering the entire panoply of GATT dispute settlement procedures as offering some hope for more effective multilateral enforcement in the future.
