Trump Can Make 'Buy American' More Than A Slogan. Just Enforce A 1980 Law

By Professor Justin Hughes
Hon. William Matthew Byrne, Jr. Chair

This op-ed originally appeared in the July 3, 2017 edition of USA Today. 

China is not manipulating its currency to our detriment, and NAFTA is a good thing for the U.S. economy. But Donald Trump has been right in his basic observation — as both candidate and president — that we need to do more to address our country’s trade deficit, how other countries "game" international trade, and how American jobs move offshore. Trump may not realize it but he could advance his “Buy American and Hire American” goals by activating a policy tool already buried in U.S. patent law.

Year in and year out, the federal government has spent tens of billions of dollars supporting scientific and technological research —­ for example, more than $131 billion in 2015 alone. Before 1980, federal agencies had different policies on inventions resulting from this federally funded research, with most of them reserving any patent rights to the federal government. That meant there was a vast trove of inventions collecting dust in government files: As of 1980, there were 28,000 patents held by the government this way — and fewer than 4% had been licensed for commercial use. While many of those were patents on military technology — and shouldn’t be licensed — there was clearly underutilization of a vast technological portfolio.

Read the full op-ed here >>

Intellectual Property – Ethiopia’s Experience (continued)

Professor Justin Hughes recently completed a State Department trip to Ethiopia to conduct talks on intellectual property. The U.S. embassy in Addis Ababa's official blog is publishing a series of his posts on the topic. The first was published on June 1, 2017.

In my last blog post, I focused on Ethiopia’s coffee industry; now let’s talk more broadly about Ethiopian’s intellectual property (IP) laws and how those laws potentially impacts the country’s growth.

Ethiopia is almost unique among African countries for its lack of participation in the multilateral treaties that govern the international IP system. There are two main multilateral conventions for IP: the Paris Convention (for patents and trademarks) and the Berne Convention (for copyright law). Today, those treaties have 195 and 183 members, respectively. Ethiopia is the largest economy not participating in the Paris Convention and perhaps the second largest economy not participating in the Berne Convention (after Iran).

Read the complete blog post

Intellectual Property – Ethiopia’s Experience

Professor Justin Hughes recently completed a State Department trip to Ethiopia to conduct talks on intellectual property. The U.S. embassy in Addis Ababa's official blog is publishing a series of his posts on the topic. The first was published on May 19. 

It’s been a pleasure to come to Ethiopia as part of the U.S. State Department’s public speaker series; the State Department invited me here to talk about intellectual property (IP) laws as well as international trade, the two subjects I teach at Loyola Law School at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. During my trip, I’ve spoken before audiences from Addis Ababa and Hawassa universities; conducted a 1.5 day workshop for the Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office (EIPO), and had many smaller meetings and site visits, including the Ethiopian Agricultural Research Institute in Addis, the Oromia Coffee Farmers’ Cooperative Union in Oromia, and rural health centers and health posts in Amhara.

Read the complete blog post>>

What Will It Take to Fulfill Trump’s Promise on Trade Law Enforcement?

By Professor Justin Hughes

This is an excerpt from an op-ed originally published in the Sacramento Bee.

Beneath the headlines of renegotiating NAFTA and torpedoing the Trans-Pacific Partnership, President-elect Donald Trump has often spoken about improving trade law enforcement, especially against China. On the campaign trail, he beat that drum in pretty much the same rhythm as Hillary Clinton.

While Clinton specifically proposed a new trade “prosecutor” and to triple the enforcement staff at office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the Trump campaign promised to use “every lawful presidential power to remedy trade disputes if China does not stop its illegal activities” and to bring new trade law cases in this country and at the World Trade Organization.

Trump is no stranger to litigation, but how can he and his administration execute on this promise?

Read the entire op-ed here.

The Perils of Killing International Trade Deals

By Professor Jeffery Atik

Not since the 1993 Ross Perot-Al Gore debate on NAFTA have international trade issues appeared so prominently in U.S. political discourse. Both the insurgent presidential candidates -- Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders -- called for a break from longstanding U.S. policies favoring international trade. Two major ongoing trade initiatives - the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) - are threatened.

Britain’s recent decision to exit the European Union has almost certainly ended any prospect of concluding TTIP, and both Trump and Hillary Clinton are now expressing opposition to TPP. Trump’s opposition to TPP is a bit surprising, as TPP was designed to counter China’s influence in the Pacific region. China is the central focus of Trump’s neo-nationalist ire; he

promises to subject Chinese goods to punishing tariffs. Were he to do so, it would likely plunge the entire World Trade Organization into crisis, effecting a U.S.-style “Brexit” from the international trading system.