Intellectual Property Committee

The Intellectual Property Committee (IPC) was an amalgamation of 13 US companies during the Uruguay Round of GATT contract partners (1986–1994). The IPC was heavily involved in the creation of the TRIPS of the World Trade Organization (WTO), which emerged from the final document of the Uruguay Round (April 15, 1994) .

Specifically, the groups were: Bristol-Myers , DuPont , General Electric , General Motors , Hewlett-Packard , IBM , Johnson & Johnson , Merck & Co., Inc. , Monsanto , Pfizer , Rockwell International and Time Warner .

These corporations had an interest in the World Trade Organization not only establishing and monitoring the rules for international trade in goods (GATT) and services ( GATS ), but also for international property (TRIPS). Intellectual property includes, for example, music or films that Time-Warner wanted to protect from international black copies. Monsanto , for example, can also register patents on maize varieties, which can then only be grown under license and for a fee, even if they have been grown in the affected regions for centuries.

James Enyart ( Monsanto ): “What I just wrote about has never happened in the Gatt story: the industry became aware of a bigger problem in international trade. She drafted a solution, reduced it to a concrete proposal and had it approved by her own and many other governments. "(" Pirates are Seizing the Genome "in: The Guardian ; October 28, 1999)