ABSTRACT

As far as the intellectual property committee (IPC) was concerned Punta del Este had been a great success. The US and Europe were becoming increasingly unified on the need for some kind of code on intellectual property in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Immediately after Punta del Este another cycle of persuasion began. The IPC moved to a systematic activation of international business networks. The function of the fundamental principles in the Basic Framework was, in the words of Friedrich Kretschmer, one of the drafters, to provide states with 'reference points' or a 'yardstick' by which countries could judge the adequacy or efficiency of their intellectual property laws. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) survey of the intellectual property world revealed a world of different legal traditions and a variety of approaches in the regulation of knowledge. The two years following Punta del Este in 1986 were critical years of coalition-building for the IPC.