Hedging Bets with BITS
This chapter argues that bilateral investment treaties (BITS) and free trade agreements (FTAs) erect a high hedge around intellectual property rights, protecting them from the impact of state regulation. Two investor-state dispute settlements (ISDS) involving IP have been resolved by final award. In both cases, the state prevailed, suggesting that the hedge may not be as impenetrable as had originally been feared. However, the chapter contends that this view is mistaken. While the awards in the decided disputes may close the door on specific contentions, they invite further challenges and maintain the heavy shadow that the hedge provided by ISDS casts on state action. In order to trim that hedge, it will be necessary for the drafters of investment obligations and the tribunals that hear ISDS disputes to take into account the intangibility of IP rights in determining when IP is sufficiently localized in a host state that it should be considered protectable by that state's investment obligations. The chapter then explores ways to trim ISDS, including the possibility of using ISDS as a mechanism for building counter-norms—hedges that protect the public and its regulatory interest.