This paper shows the evolving and important role Canada has played since Confederation in 1867 in the development of international treaties dealing with intellectual property (IP) law. By the mid-twentieth century, it had become a key middle-power leader in the movement toward the arranged marriage of IP and trade law, which ultimately resulted in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights agreement in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Now, with the apparent denouement of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, its possible resurrection as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (without the United States and its more excessive demands), the successful conclusion of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement and the renegotiation of NAFTA, Canada stands poised to once again play an influential role, while striving to act in its own best domestic interests.
