Originally from Investment Treaty Arbitration and International Law - Volume 11

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What international investment law standards protect IP?  Should States be held liable for breach of BIT protections?  Our first author argues for a narrow application of treaty standards, such as “Fair and Equitable Treatment” and “Full protection and security”.  Our second author argues that investment standards, although largely untested, are particularly suitable for IP disputes and describes how.

DR. WEILER:  Welcome back to our second session.

All of our panels are just wonderful, and you’ve got the descriptions of them, so I won’t bother describing them.  I want to leave as much time as I can for discussion.  I just need to introduce one of our longest serving and celebrated moderators, Tim Nelson of Skadden, Arps.  Tim is a man of immense talent, and also he’s a great story teller.  I just love listening to him tell me about all of the famous people he’s met and done things with; I’m not sure if the stores are true, but they’re really good.  He is also an erudite writer.  I’m very happy that he includes me on his list of people that he sends his latest papers to, and I’m very appreciative of that, and actually I’m surprised he has the time given how successful a partner in the arbitration practice at Skadden he is.  Maybe I should be thanking his associates, but I’m pretty sure it’s Tim because the work is consistently the same quality and has the same sort of what’s the word?  Editorial, that’s the word, editorial direction.

So, again, I’m looking forward to the panel, and I’m looking forward to the latest story that Tim has to share with all of us.  Thank you.

MR. NELSON:  Well, then I won’t disappoint.

I was looking at this topic because it reminded me of recently being interviewed for a potential jury (I wasn’t chosen) in Dutchess County, New York, and one of the questions they asked is whether you’ve been a victim of crime.  On the subject of identity theft or cyber fraud, I would say if every one of you checked your handheld devices this is morning and went through the spam filter, you would find at least five felonies waiting to happen.  That is the life that we lead now.  We are constantly under bombardment, and cyber security takes all sorts of forms and raises all sorts of issues.  It’s now in the political arena too.

I'm delighted to be able to speak to that as well as some of the substantive issues that come out of the recent cases, including Eli Lilly and Philip Morris.