[Draft] International Trade Ethics

[Tinfect]

Category: Free Trade

Strength: Mild

---

The General Assembly,

Acknowledging of the present lack of legislation regarding patents and property rights in international trade,

Aware that this legislative void may be abused by Member-States,

Respecting the sovereignty of those states that are ideologically opposed to patents,

Wishing that Member-States would dispense with all the hullabaloo about foreign nations that they have absolutely no ties to whatsoever beyond shared membership in the World Assembly having technologies and products that look a bit like the ones in their nation,

Hereby;

Mandates;

• Member-States engaged in International Trade, in the event of irreconcilable differences in patent laws, hold negotiations, including relevant National Authorities and Rights-Holders from all involved parties, and representatives of the World Assembly International Trade Commission, with the goal of establishing mutually acceptable terms and rights regarding foreign patents,

Prohibits;

• Member-States from acquiring technologies and products under foreign patents for the purpose of replication without the explicit consent of Rights-Holders, except when there exists a state of war between the involved nations,

None as of yet.

• None as of yet.

• None as of yet.

OOC:
For those that are somehow unaware, this is the first draft for a replacement of the abominable Foreign Patent Recognition. Right now, all it does is mandate that if you're going to engage in International Trade, you do it properly, and that if you're not going to, you don't outright steal technologies from other Nations that you are not actively at war with. Yes, I am aware that there's practically nothing there at the moment. It's late, I'm tired, and that's about as much as I can come up with at this point.

I'm open to pretty much any suggestion that does not involve the insane clusterfuck of enforcing 24,000 different technological levels and patent laws on every Member-State. We're trying not to screw over ideologies Railiana doesn't like this time around. I personally don't think we need to define patents, foreign or otherwise, but if that isn't the general consensus we can see about having some of those as well.

[The Greater Siriusian Domain]

Teran Saber: "I have only one complaint."

Wishing that Member-States would dispense with all the hullabaloo about foreign nations that they have absolutely no ties to whatsoever beyond shared membership in the World Assembly having technologies and products that look a bit like the ones in their nation

"This could be worded somewhat more professionally. Perhaps something like the following?"

Wishing that Member-States would be more civil about other Member-States they do not have diplomatic ties with possessing technologies that resemble their own technology,

"I must admit, 'hullabaloo' doesn't have a very serious sound to it. While I support making legislation funny again, I'm afraid many people would object to such terminology within an official document."

[Bananaistan]

OOC: Isn't your mandates clause just a complete duplication GAR#208, Resolving WA Trade Disputes?

Perhaps it would be better to come back to this when you actually have something you want to propose?

[Tinfect]

OOC: Isn't your mandates clause just a complete duplication GAR#208, Resolving WA Trade Disputes?

OOC:
Looking at 208, it rather does. Unfortunately, I can't really see any other way this would work out, besides Railiana's 'solution' of enforcing the Patent Laws of every Member-State on all Member-States all at once. If you have any suggestions, though, I'd love to see them.
Again, I am very tired, if my ability to find solutions seems limited, its because I'm about 20 minutes from falling asleep at the keyboard, but I felt like if I didn't force myself to post a draft of this, that it'd never get done.

Perhaps it would be better to come back to this when you actually have something you want to propose?

Well, I would eventually like to propose this, obviously not in its current state, but at some point when it's actually... complete.

[Calladan]

Prohibits;

• Member-States from acquiring technologies and products under foreign patents for the purpose of replication without the explicit consent of Rights-Holders, except when there exists a state of war between the involved nations,

Isn't there a chance that this might lead to nations going to war, just so they can skirt this provision? (Okay - it might not be a very big chance, but I think less war is, on the whole, better than more).

[Bears Armed]

Prohibits;

• Member-States from acquiring technologies and products under foreign patents for the purpose of replication without the explicit consent of Rights-Holders, except when there exists a state of war between the involved nations,

Isn't there a chance that this might lead to nations going to war, just so they can skirt this provision? (Okay - it might not be a very big chance, but I think less war is, on the whole, better than more).

Wouldn't going to war almost certainly cost a LOT more than either arranging some sort of production-under-licence scheme for the patented goods in question or any extra costs involved in importing them rather than producing them locally? If so, then 'Reasonable Nation' theory suggests that no sane government would take that approach. Hokay, so unfortunately not all governments are sane, but...

[Calladan]

Isn't there a chance that this might lead to nations going to war, just so they can skirt this provision? (Okay - it might not be a very big chance, but I think less war is, on the whole, better than more).

Wouldn't going to war almost certainly cost a LOT more than either arranging some sort of production-under-licence scheme for the patented goods in question or any extra costs involved in importing them rather than producing them locally? If so, then 'Reasonable Nation' theory suggests that no sane government would take that approach. Hokay, so unfortunately not all governments are sane, but...

(grin) I did say it mightn't be a very big chance!

[States of Glory WA Office]

Neville: Despite this draft's short length, I'm a little confused as to how this affects nations without patent laws. I fear that the 'Prohibits' clause screws those countries over.

Also, keep the 'hullabaloo' line. It perfectly sums up this entire debate on patents.

Rowan: I oppose this. Patents have no place in the modern world. It's 2016*, man! We should ban all patents!

*OOC: Yes, I know that not all nations share the same universe, but Rowan doesn't care about that.

[Excidium Planetis]

Isn't there a chance that this might lead to nations going to war, just so they can skirt this provision? (Okay - it might not be a very big chance, but I think less war is, on the whole, better than more).

Wouldn't going to war almost certainly cost a LOT more than either arranging some sort of production-under-licence scheme for the patented goods in question or any extra costs involved in importing them rather than producing them locally? If so, then 'Reasonable Nation' theory suggests that no sane government would take that approach. Hokay, so unfortunately not all governments are sane, but...

"Declarations of war cost virtually nothing," Blackbourne explains, "and as the vast majority of member nations have no feasible way of actually engaging in warfare against us without us actively trying to do so, the benefits of skirting patent rights outweigh the cost of declaring war on member nations."

[Bears Armed]

Wouldn't going to war almost certainly cost a LOT more than either arranging some sort of production-under-licence scheme for the patented goods in question or any extra costs involved in importing them rather than producing them locally? If so, then 'Reasonable Nation' theory suggests that no sane government would take that approach. Hokay, so unfortunately not all governments are sane, but...

"Declarations of war cost virtually nothing," Blackbourne explains, "and as the vast majority of member nations have no feasible way of actually engaging in warfare against us without us actively trying to do so, the benefits of skirting patent rights outweigh the cost of declaring war on member nations."

"But aren't the nations in whose patents yours is really interested, and vice versa, likely to be those close to or slightly above yours in technological advancement which would probably include most of those that are likeliest to be able to wage war against you?"

[Excidium Planetis]

"Declarations of war cost virtually nothing," Blackbourne explains, "and as the vast majority of member nations have no feasible way of actually engaging in warfare against us without us actively trying to do so, the benefits of skirting patent rights outweigh the cost of declaring war on member nations."

"But aren't the nations in whose patents yours is really interested, and vice versa, likely to be those close to or slightly above yours in technological advancement which would probably include most of those that are likeliest to be able to wage war against you?"

"Not necessarily." Blackbourne explains. "Nations with non-Terran lifeforms may well have patents on GMOs and medications that we do not possess, and without needing to be anywhere near our technology level. Other nations may have focused on developing technology in different areas. Obviously, our nation focused much more heavily on space flight than other nations may have, since it was vital to our survival."

Schultz adds her own comments. "On top of that, even advanced spacefaring nations may not escape us declaring war on them solely to steal technology. Due to our status as nomads, we can swiftly flee the local space of a nation and vanish into the stars, never to be seen again by the nation whose technology we ripped off. What are they going to do, visit every one of the billions of star systems in the galaxy to track down some patent infringers?"

OOC:
Since this is getting way out of the realm of real life, let's put this into the real world. Say this draft was a real international law. A man in Tonga patents something valuable. The United States declares war on Tonga, and then proceeds to bypass the patent. How can Tonga, a nation of only 100,000, of which only a quarter are considered fit for military service, possibly wage war against a superpower on the other side of the Pacific which has minor cities more populous than the entire nation of Tonga?