Tobacco and the WTO

The Australian Legal Philosophy Students' Association and the UQ Law, Science and Technology program are pleased to host the third seminar of 2017. We will be joined by Professor Mark Davison, who will discuss the nature of 'rights' under international trademark law.

Australia recently won a dispute at the World Trade Organization (WTO) about the Tobacco Plain Packaging Act 2011 (Cth). The case arose under the WTO treaty on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). The outcome has significant implications for trade jurisprudence and the rights of states to impose public health measures that interfere with their international obligations and the privileges of trademark owners.

The seminar will be delivered by Professor Mark Davison of the Monash University Faculty of Law. From 2011, he was Expert Advisory Group on Plain Packaging of Tobacco Products to the Australian Government. He is a member of the Intellectual Property Committee of the Law Council of Australia.

You can read Professor Davison's paper on "Rights, Privileges, Legitimate Interests, and Justifiability: Article 20 of TRIPS and Plain Packaging of Tobacco", jointly written with the legal philosopher Patrick Emerton, here: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2322043

No RSVP required.