WIPO-WTO Joint Workshop on Intellectual Property Rights and Transfer of Technology

(Geneva, November 17, 2003)

Speaker - Frederick M. Abbott

Frederick Abbott is Edward Ball Eminent Scholar Professor of International Law at the Florida State University College of Law. He is Rapporteur for the Committee on International Trade Law of the International Law Association, on the Panel of Experts of UNCTAD’s Program on the Settlement of Disputes in International Trade, Investment and Intellectual Property, consultant to the UNCTAD Project on TRIPS and Development, to the World Bank Global HIV/AIDS Program and to the Quaker United Nations Office (Geneva). He has served as consultant to the WHO Department of Essential Drugs and Medicines Policy. Professor Abbott serves as arbitrator for the World Intellectual Property Organization Arbitration and Mediation Center. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of International Economic Law (Oxford). He is former Chair of the American Society of Law Intellectual Property Interest Group and the International Law Section of the American Association of Law Schools, and former Director of the American Society of International Law Research Project on Human Rights and International Trade. Professor Abbott is the author of numerous books and articles in the fields of international economic law, international intellectual property rights law, and public international law. In 2002, he prepared a Study of the WTO TRIPS Agreement and Its Implications for Access to Medicines in Developing Countries for the British Commission on Intellectual Property Rights. His books include The International Intellectual Property System: Commentary and Materials (with Thomas Cottier and Francis Gurry) (1999), China in the World Trading System: Defining the Principles of Engagement (1998), Public Policy and Global Technological Integration (1997), and Law and Policy of Regional Integration (1995). His book on treaty-making, Parliamentary Participation in the Making and Operation of Treaties, edited with Stefan Riesenfeld, was awarded the American Society of International Law Certificate of Merit. He has regularly served Visiting Professor at University of California at Berkeley (Boalt Hall) School of Law, and he has served as Jean Monnet Professor at the University of Bonn, Visiting Professor and Weickert Fellow at the University of Berne, Visiting Professor at University of California, Hastings College of the Law and at Vanderbilt Law School, and was Professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law. Professor Abbott regularly teaches on the faculties of the World Trade Institute in Berne and the Central European University - World Law Institute in Budapest. Professor Abbott holds BA and LLM degrees from UC Berkeley, and a JD from Yale Law School.