NAFTA 2.0 (now USMCA) – Intellectual Property Law

The renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement among Canada, Mexico and the United States is a lengthy and complex document.  Chapter 20, which deals with Intellectual Property, is itself some 63 pages in length.  It refers to some dozen other international treaties on intellectual property law.  The parties to the USMCA affirm that they are already party to five of them, and commit to become party to another six of these treaties by the date the USMCA comes into force.^[1]

1. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

In the previous NAFTA, Chapter 17 dealt with intellectual property issues.  While the wording in Chapter 20 of USMCA differs considerably from that of Chapter 17 of NAFTA, in many cases the essential content seems to be unchanged.  For example, article 1716(4) of NAFTA requires the parties to provide that their judicial authorities have the power to grant provisional remedies ex parte (Latin meaning on one side only).  The USMCA provision on