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January 21, 2009
| Author: | Keith E. Maskus, Stanford Calderwood Professor of Economics, University of Colorado |
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This module features teaching notes for Reforming U.S. Patent Policy: Getting the Incentives Right by author Keith E. Maskus, along with other resources to supplement the text. This Council Special Report acknowledges the importance of patent protection for innovation but also warns against blind adherence to the mantra that more protection will necessarily produce more innovation.
What is a CFR Academic Module?
Academic Modules—featuring teaching notes by the authors of CFR publications—are designed to assist educators in creating or supplementing a course syllabus. The modules are customized packages built around a primary CFR text, such as a book or report, and include teaching notes; additional readings; video, audio, and transcripts of CFR meetings; Foreign Affairs articles; and other online resources. Use of these modules is free of charge. They may be used in part or in their entirety.
November 2006
Council Special Report No. 19
This report argues that reforms of the U.S. patent system have suceeded in limiting the competition of ideas, discouraging innovation, and ultimately reducing U.S. competitiveness.
January 7, 2009
The global drug industry has fought to prevent developing nations from making cheap generic versions of drugs under patent, but the demand for cheap medicine is expected to grow amid the financial crisis.
Updated: February 10, 2009
The effort to stimulate the U.S. economy provides the first major test of how the Obama administration will balance concerns about trade policy.
June 13, 2006
As the Doha world trade talks founder, the United States has continued to pursue a growing number of bilateral deals. Some economists praise the trend as contributing to trade liberalization and market reforms while others scorn the practice as skewing trade norms.
April 19, 2006
Trade relations between the United States and China have provided enormous benefits to both countries. But a growing U.S. trade deficit, China's regulation of its currency, and concerns over intellectual property violations continue to stress the relationship.
July 2008
In this book, Jagdish Bhagwati reveals how preferential trade agreements have recreated the unhappy situation of the protectionist 1930s, when world trade was undermined by discriminatory practices, and argues that the world trading system is definitely at risk again.
March 2007
Council Special Report No. 25
This report defends the WTO dispute settlement mechanism against critics who think it should be tougher on violators as well as critics who think it is already so tough as to violate sovereignty.
March 2004 (New edition: July 2007)
An internationally renowned economist, Jagdish Bhagwati takes conventional wisdom—that globalization is the cause of several social ills—and turns it on its head. Properly regulated, globalization, he says, is the most powerful force for social good in the world.
January 2002
This seminal volume brings together the research and critical thinking of many of the world’s top macro- and micro-economists to provide a unique, multifaceted perspective on the causes of technological innovation and its relationship to economic performance. Through the use of detailed, up-to-date country and industry studies, this book provides the most authoritative and detailed analysis of this topic ever assembled.
January/February 2009
Summary
The United States' unique ability to capitalize on connectivity will make the twenty-first century an American century.
September/October 2008
Summary
The prosperity of the United States and China depends on helping China further integrate into the global economic system.
2006
A critique of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's practice of denying patents for new financial services products unless they are connected to the "technological arts." The article shows that this restriction on patentability has no grounding in U.S. patent law or precedent and does little to address the larger and more important issue of dwindling patent quality.
September 17, 2002
Updated: February 26, 2007
Two experts debate the mechanism for adjudicating trade arguments.
December 2006
Book
Authors: Adam B. Jaffe and Josh Lerner
December 2004
Book
Author: Suzanne Scotchmer
December 2002
Article
Authors: F.M. Scherer and J. Watal
September 2002
Report
United Kingdon Commission on Intellectual Property Rights
1998
Article
Authors: Roberto Mazzoleni and Richard Nelson
Winter 1991
Article
Author: Stanley Besen and Leo Raskind
January 1, 2009
A summation of the state of international trade in 2007, with predictions for 2008.
November 28, 2006
Keith Maskus, professor of economics at the University of Colorado at Boulder and author of a new Council Special Report on patents, discusses U.S. patent policy with Douglas Holtz-Eakin, director of the Maurice R. Greenburg Center for geoeconomic studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.
April 2006
The report recommends actions needed to ensure that poor people in developing countries have access to existing and new products to diagnose, treat and prevent the diseases which affect them most.
November 14, 2006
OxFam International has issued a report criticizing the failure to implement the Doha Declaration on Public Health.
Global Economic Trends: The Global Trading System
| Speakers: | Jagdish N. Bhagwati, Senior Fellow for International Economics, Council on Foreign Relations |
|---|---|
| Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León, Director, Yale Center for the Study of Globalization; Professor, Yale University; Former President of Mexico |
Transcript: Global Economic Trends: The Trading System
A Conversation with Henry Paulson
| Speaker: | Henry M. Paulson, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury |
|---|---|
| Presider: | Peter Ackerman, Managing Director, Rockport Capital, Inc. |
Please join Secretary Paulson for remarks in advance of his trip to India, with an emphasis on India’s rise as an important player on the global economic stage.The Secretary’s remarks will be followed by a question-and-answer session.
Transcript: A Conversation with Henry Paulson [Rush Transcript; Federal News Service]
Audio: A Conversation with Henry M. Paulson (Audio)
This meeting is on the record.
A Defining Moment for U.S.-China Trade Policy
| Speaker: | Max Baucus, Member, U.S. Senate (D-MT) |
|---|---|
| Presider: | J. Stapleton Roy, Managing Director, Kissinger Associates, Inc. |
12:15 – 1:00 p.m. Lunch
1:00 – 1:45 p.m. Meeting
Please note special time.
Transcript: A Defining Moment for U.S.-China Trade Policy [Rush Transcript; Federal News Service, Inc.]
This meeting is on the record.
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Start-Up Nation addresses the trillion-dollar question: How is it that Israel—a country of 7.1 million, only sixty years old, surrounded by enemies— produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the UK? With the insights of geopolitical experts and investors, the authors examine this nation’s adversity-driven culture to answer this question and offer prescriptions for a global economy on the rebound.
In Forces of Fortune, Vali Nasr presents a paradigm-changing revelation that will transform the understanding of the Muslim world at large. He reveals that there is a vital but unseen rising force in the Islamic world—a new business-minded middle class—that is building a vibrant new Muslim world economy and that holds the key to winning the cold war against Iran and extremists.
In Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know, Julia E. Sweig presents a remarkably accessible portrait of Cuba's unique place on the world stage over the past fifty years, including its internal politics, its often fraught relationship with the United States, and its shifting relationship with the global community.
Complete list of CFR Books
The report of this bipartisan Task Force of distinguished leaders and experts represents a strong consensus on the importance of repairing America's immigration policy. It makes the case that maintaining America's political and economic leadership depends on attracting talented and hard-working immigrants, and on securing the country's borders in a smart, effective, and humane way.
This report finds that nuclear weapons will remain a fundamental element of U.S. national security in the near term, and makes recommendations on how to ensure the safety, security, and reliability of the U.S. deterrent nuclear force, prevent nuclear terrorism, and strengthen the nuclear nonproliferation regime.
About Independent Task Forces at CFR
Complete list of Task Force reports
Identifying international threats and acting on them may be the most difficult job for U.S. policymakers. This report
provides an actionable road map for managing international threats before they erupt into crises and makes a strong case that preventive action is not a luxury but a necessity.
For more than a decade, the United States has mostly watched from the sidelines as Asian countries organize themselves into an alphabet soup of new multilateral groups. In this report, the authors review the relationship between pan-Asian and trans-Pacific institutions and suggest policy guidelines for a new U.S. approach to this new Asian landscape.
Complete list of Council Special Reports
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