Earlier this spring, the Center for Law and Intellectual Property at Texas A&M University School of Law devoted its annual symposium to commemorating the silver anniversary of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Held on March 29-30, the "TRIPS Agreement at 25" Symposium brought together leading international intellectual property experts to critically examine the past two and a half decades of developments surrounding the world's predominant intellectual property agreement.
The event also explored the proliferation of bilateral, regional and plurilateral trade agreements, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, as well as the future of the international intellectual property regime.
"TRIPS Agreement at 25" Symposium at Texas A&M Law brought together leading international intellectual property experts from around the world
Attracting the who's who of the international intellectual property community, the symposium featured presentations from leading scholars from Harvard, NYU, Duke, Penn, Georgetown and Emory law schools. The event also gathered participants from different parts of the world, including Canada, Finland, India, Japan, Mexico and Switzerland.
Antony Taubman of the WTO looked back on the development of the TRIPS Agreement
Antony Taubman, the director of the WTO Intellectual Property, Government Procurement and Competition Division, served as the symposium's luncheon speaker. He delivered an insightful and highly provocative presentation on  "six impossible things" about the TRIPS Agreement.
Also participating in the event were Maria Strong, the Deputy Director of Policy and International Affairs of the U.S. Copyright Office (now the Associate Register of Copyrights); Professor Keith Maskus of the University of Colorado Boulder, the former chief economist of the U.S. State Department; and Todd Reves (Texas Wesleyan University School of Law '98), an attorney-advisor at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the former regional intellectual property right attaché for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean at the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Texas A&M Law Professors Brian Holland, Srividhya Ragavan, Saurabh Vishnubhakat and Peter Yu with Antony Taubman of the WTO, Maria Strong of the U.S. Copyright Office, and Megan Hoyt and Todd Reves of the ​USPTO
"The spring symposium has always been a major highlight of our intellectual property law program," said Professor Peter K. Yu, who organized the symposium and directs the Center for Law and Intellectual Property at Texas A&M University School of Law. "This annual event not only provides a valuable forum for exploring timely topics that are important to the intellectual property field, but also enables our students to have face-to-face interactions with intellectual property thought leaders from around the world."
Professor Yu with Professors Rochelle Dreyfuss (NYU), Jerome Reichman (Duke), Ruth Okediji (Harvard), Margo Bagley (Emory) and Olufunmilayo Arewa (Temple)
"TRIPS at 25 was a great opportunity for scholars to discuss the future of the trade regime, especially from an intellectual property perspective," concurred Professor Srividhya Ragavan, a noted patent and trade law expert at Texas A&M University School of Law. "The WTO’s global patent prescription has helped demarcate a class of society that can access life-saving medication from those that cannot. TRIPS has morphed access to medicine from a poor country problem into a developed country issue."
Texas A&M Law Professors Irene Calboli and Saurabh Vishnubhakat with Professor Christine Haight Farley (American), Professor Joshua Sarnoff (DePaul),  Professor Sarah Wasserman Rajec (William & Mary), Texas A&M Copyright/Fair Use Librarian Emilie Algenio and Texas A&M Law Student Lee Chedister '19

About the Center for Law and Intellectual Property
Founded in 2009, the Center for Law and Intellectual Property at Texas A&M University School of Law takes pride in its mission to promote excellence in the study and practice of intellectual property law by engaging theory, policy and practice. Based in a Tier 1 research university, the center serves as an international research hub, fostering partnerships with leading research institutions from around the world.
In addition to an intellectual property concentration for J.D. students, the program offers a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Intellectual Property degree for lawyers and a Master of Jurisprudence (M.Jur.) in Intellectual Property degree for non-lawyers. In the past three years, peer surveys conducted by U.S. News and World Report have ranked Texas A&M consistently among the top 10 intellectual property law programs in the United States.