New report out from the DG Trade on intellectual property rights protection. For a really nice post on the topic, see the Patenting Lives blog, complete with links to the report. Interesting to note the work being done on international harmonization on the patent side.

All you hear about in the press, of course, are threats of WTO action (against China) by the U.S. government. A lot of work goes on every day on international standards and updates to new agreements. This topic tends to be a little dry, so I do not fault the media for not covering it. I always admire the work that goes into this stuff, however, since I know that a great deal of it is done by private lawyers working through committee associations. I have been on committees in the past that did such work, and believe me, it is not easy to find enough time when you already work 347 hours a week.