This article does not identify which protections, precisely, are under threat from the negotiations and why, making it hard for readers to judge whether the government’s stance is in the community’s interest or not.

It is true that IP protection provide incentives for researchers and companies to invest in R&D that can be of great benefit to the community. But it is also true that these protections mean that producers can sell their products at massive mark-ups compared to their cost of production for many years.

From the point of view of the community’s welfare, the trick is to balance these competing interests: too little IP protection, and innovation and R&D suffer; too much, and we pay too much for too long.