well as with respect to the transparency and due process of the EU GI registration systems. These concerns have become increasingly pronounced in the context of EU trade agreements, where due process safeguards, such as GI opposition and cancellation, have been diminished.
Intellectual Property and the Environment
Strong IPR protection and enforcement are essential to promoting investment in innovation in the environmental sector. Such innovation not only promotes economic growth and supports jobs, but also is critical to responding to environmental challenges. IPR provides incentives for R&D in this important sector, including through university research. Conversely, inadequate IPR protection and enforcement in foreign markets discourages entry into technology transfer arrangements in those markets. This may hinder the realization of the technological advances needed to meet environmental challenges, including the mitigation of, and adaptation to, climate change.
Certain national policies and practices advanced domestically and in multilateral fora may have the unintended effect of undermining national and global efforts to address serious environmental challenges. For example, India's National Manufacturing Policy promotes the compulsory licensing of patented technologies as a means of effectuating technology transfer with respect to green technologies. India has pressed to multilateralize this approach through its proposals in the negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). These actions will discourage, rather than promote, investment in and dissemination of green technologies, including those technologies that contribute to climate change adaptation and mitigation.
The United States continues to work to ensure robust IPR protection and enforcement, which gives inventors and creators the confidence to: engage in foreign direct investment, joint ventures, local partnerships, and licensing arrangements; collaborate with foreign counterparts; open research facilities in markets abroad; establish local operations and work with local manufacturers and suppliers; create jobs, including local worker training; and invest in infrastructure for the production, adoption, and delivery of green technology goods and services, without fear of misappropriation of their IPR. Strong IPR protection is, therefore, not only critical to the objective of addressing environmental challenges and developing a global response to climate change, but also to national economic growth. The United States promotes strong IPR protection and enforcement as an environmental as well as an economic imperative, providing critical development benefits for, in particular, developing and least-developed country (LDC) partners.
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