Never Short of Good Ideas…

To clarify, ECIPE proposed the International Digital Economy Agreement (IDEA for short) in 2010 to expand the WTO IT Agreement (ITA) to cover both goods and services. In March 2012, this idea was proposed by our good friends at the European Commission to the WTO members.

The ECIPE proposal is entirely unrelated to another IDEA, the Geneva-based International Digital Economy Alliance, a trade association launched by the CCIA (Computer and Communications Industry Association). ECIPE scholars have provided a few comments to their paper, which explores some interesting perspectives from the tech industry. We are often requested to provide comments to work by business associations, civil society, scholars, students – but they do not necessary represent our views.

Finally, there is also the International Digital Economy Accord at the Aspen Institute, with whom we had the pleasure to meet and exchange ideas during the conception of their project. They delivered their final report in 2012.

Needless to say, none of these three idea(s) seem to be a keen practitioner of trademark protection.