Many Pacific Island countries are currently considering whether to introduce intellectual property legislation, or whether to amend existing legislation. One of the drivers of this process are negotiations to join multilateral Free Trade Organisations, such as the World Trade Organisation, and to sign bilateral Trade Agreements, such as the European Union’s Economic Partnership Agreement and the proposed PACER Plus agreement with Australia and New Zealand. Another driver is concern that the traditional knowledge of the country is currently not adequately protected from the risk of exploitation by third parties. Decisions about what sort of intellectual property regime exists in a particular country can have significant impacts on that country’s development and the lives of its people, particularly in the areas of agriculture, education, health and adapting to climate change. International experience has demonstrated that although intellectual property laws can bring benefits, they can also undermine development by threatening food security, restricting access to knowledge and medicines, and impeding technological transfer and development. Statebased intellectual property regimes may also have an impact on customary laws and institutions
that currently regulate access to traditional knowledge in the country.

This conference will bring together a range of speakers from throughout the Pacific Island countries, as well as Australia, Europe and the United States, to discuss the implications of intellectual property laws on development in the region. Its purpose is to enable a deeper understanding of the potential advantages and disadvantages of different models of intellectual property protection in the context of Pacific Island countries, to help inform the decisions that will need to be made concerning these issues in the next few years.

A selected range of papers presented at the conference will be published as either an edited book or as a special edition of a journal.