First the good news: The latest draft text of the agreement does not include any references to intellectual property.
Now the bad news: The issue is could still be alive. Language offered up in the technology development and transfer section of the text suggests “Addressing barriers in accessing to the transfer of safe, appropriate and environmentally and socially sound technologies by developing countries.”
While that may sound innocuous enough, it isn’t. If IPR is viewed as a barrier to technology transfer from developed to developed countries—an idea with remarkable resilience despite abundant evidence to the contrary—then attempts to weaken it can come up again and again in future discussions.
So although this is a significant improvement over previous language calling out IPR, it just punts the issue down the field (something that, when all is said and done, I’m sure we’ll see more of with other issues.)