Bennett Gastle In Cambodia

Bennett Gastle has worked in Cambodia since 2006. Initially, we were  retained by the Estey Centre for Law and Economics in International Trade and the Conference Board of Canada in 2005 to draft legislation to implement Section 39 of the World Trade Organization’s Trade-Related Aspects of International Property Rights Agreement (“TRIPS”). The project was then extended and we were requested to draft the regulations in support of the legislation.

Article 39 deals with undisclosed information in private commercial disputes and the protection of clinical test data in the marketing approval process for pharmaceutical drugs and agricultural chemicals. A related issue is the drafting of legislation to implement the Doha Declaration on Public Health involving compulsory licensing of pharmaceutical drugs in the midst of health emergencies.

Our approach was to draft guides explaining in detail the area of law and the policy options available. We also sponsored Mr. Tan Try, a lawyer from Cambodia, to Canada as an intern to work with us in the drafting process, and to attend Osgoode Hall Law School.

The law and the regulations are now being submitted to the Council of Ministers for passage into law. After the laws were drafted, Bennett Gastle provided a training session from August 25th to 28th, 2008 at the Royal University for Law and Economics (“RULE”) in Phnom Penh. The course was sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce. (Click www.apec-eip.ca/content/newsdetail.asp?newsid=41 for more information).

During the week of January 25th, 2009, Bennett Gastle provided a further course at RULE on the World Trade Organization. (Click to read Opening Remarks of Secretary of State at the Training Session in Cambodia). It was provided through the auspices of SEATRANET, which is an alliance of universities and training institutions throughout Southeast Asia (home page http://seatranet.org).

Bennett Gastle has now been invited to provide a training session on international intellectual property law at the Ministry of Commerce this Fall. It is our intention to coordinate this with the training that we will be providing in Bangkok in October, 2009. It is also possible that additional courses will be offered at RULE and/or the National University, also located in Phnom Penh.

Bennett Gastle In Thailand

Bennett Gastle conducted a technical mission in Bangkok on February 2nd, 2009 with the Ministry of Commerce related to competition law.  We will provide a five day training session and workshop at the Ministry of Commerce related to international competition law. The course material, to be delivered in early September, 2009 will review the major competition law issues, the history of international competition law, the various bilateral agreements as well as the current status of various initiatives to develop multilateral or plurilateral agreements.

Bennett Gastle In Vietnam

Chuck has been invited to provide a series of lectures at the Foreign Trade University in Hanoi this fall.  Chuck's trip this fall will include one week each in Bangkok, Phnom Penh and Hanoi.

Bennett Gastle In Japan

We have been invited by the Institute for International Studies and Training, an organization under the auspices of the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, to participate in an APEC project to explore new approaches to the challenges of developing and implementing effective intellectual asset management for emerging enterprises in the APEC region. We attended the initial organizational meeting in Okinawa, Japan, during the week of September 13th, 2009. Participants included representatives from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Indonesia, New Zealand, the Philippines, and Taiwan. Case studies will be prepared over the next ten months and culminate in an additional conference in Taiwan in the Spring, 2010.