Hagley’s Manuscripts and Archives Department is pleased to announce the opening of the Intellectual Property Committee (IPC) records. The collection was given to Hagley Museum and Library in 2010 by Jacques J. Gorlin who served as its director.
The IPC was formed in 1986 as an ad-hoc organization whose mission was to develop international support in strengthening laws to protect patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets. A member-based organization with an annual membership fee of $25,000, its founding corporate members were DuPont, FMC Corporation, Merck, Bristol-Myers, General Motors, Rockwell International, Warner Communications, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Monsanto, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and General Electric. Their charge was to draft a document detailing the most effective way to protect U.S. held copyrights through a multilateral trade agreement. Advocating that intellectual property should be a major element in U.S. foreign economic policy, this document would be submitted for inclusion in the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trades) to be decided by the World Trade Organization at the 1994 Uruguay Round meeting.
Mr. Gorlin, a well-known economic consultant in Washington, DC, worked for the Department of the Treasury and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Working as a senior economic advisor to Senator Jacob K. Javits (R-NY) from 1977-1981, Gorlin served as the Senator's liaison with the New York business and banking communities. During the next two years he was an Executive Assistant to the Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, and then held the position of Senior Economic Advisor to the Administrator of the Agency for International Development.
Gorlin was contracted by IBM's chief executive officer John R. Opel (1925-2011) to draft a document detailing the importance of intellectual property in relationship to U.S. held copyrights that would be sent to the United States Trade Relations representatives. Opel was interested in the evolving bilateral negotiations and thought a trade-based approach would strengthen IP protection world-wide. After years of meetings with intellectual property experts in various countries, the Committee was instrumental in compiling the first United States Trade Relations priority watch list. Known as USTR Special 301 and issued on May 25, 1989, the list included Brazil, People’s Republic of China, India, Mexico, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan and Thailand.
The Intellectual Property Committee was successful in drafting a document that would strengthen intellectual property rights worldwide. Their work was known as the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and approved by the World Trade Organization. On December 8, 1994 during the 103rd Session of Congress, H.R. 5110 titled “an act to improve and implement the trade agreements and trade negotiations concluded in the Uruguay Round of the multilateral” was introduced and became law. It is the most important global intellectual property standard. The collection documents this work.
The finding aid for The Intellectual Property Committee records is available here.
For further information please contact askhagley@hagley.org.
Marsha Mills is the Foundation Archivist at Hagley Museum and Library.