The Costs. 1. The Costs of operating the JSS (determined in accordance with proper practices) will be recovered from the prices paid by customers for goods and services provided by the JSS. Any surplus income/profit accrued at the end of this Agreement or any other relevant operating period(s) will be shared by the Councils on a pro-rata basis to the recorded business turnover of the Councils within the JSS during the relevant period. Any losses/trading deficit arising during the currency of this Agreement or any other relevant operating period will be shared on a population basis of the local authority areas of the Councils*
The Costs. Unless the Disputes Committee determines that the costs of lodging the appeal must be charged on to the parties, these costs will be borne by the SFA.
The Costs. The investment chapter is crucial to understand the most relevant costs of these types of agreements. The FTA with the United States has been defined as a “new generation” agreement, which encompasses all aspects including rules about investment. In this respect, the model is, without a doubt, chapter 11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement which has been seriously criticized by both detractors and previous supporter. In the FTA with Chile the investment chapter is number 10. It is practically identical to the controversial Chapter 11 of the NAFTA.23 NAFTA includes a list of rights for multinational corporations, which allow, among other benefits, for businesses to sue Central Governments if they feel that the actions have been taken which violate their rights. This affects the Central Government’s ability to protect public interest. Though it is argued that the FTA has clauses, which protect public interests, the evidence in the case of NAFTA is much to the contrary. The rights which have generated controversy because of how they have been interpreted within the context of a free trade agreement are: national treatment, most favored nation, the prohibition of performance requisites and expropriation. This occurs because the definition of investor and investment is broad, permitting a spectrum of interpretations. And the actions of the State ‘measures’ are also broadly defined, permitting a spectrum of interpretations of the actions of the State. Clearly this is a problem since it opens the door for a permanent questioning of the actions of the State, even those destined for the public good. On the other hand, Chapter 10, gives investors a broad set of rights protected, whereas it establishes a series of obligations on part of the national state. Many of these rights and obligations are similar to bilateral investment agreements, however the conjunction with the general objectives of the treaty (free trade), and the possibility of directly suing the state, has been the recipe permitting the broadening of investor rights far and beyond what was conceived previously, this is directly affecting the capacity of governments to regulate for the common good. Moreover the private sector is using these treaties to open markets and restrict the legitimate regulations on part of the state. This has been the experience of NAFTA, which has generated a controversy, since it seems these treaties have served to place private interests and rights above public interes...
The Costs. The costs of applying for and maintaining a patent is the most serious obstacle for an extensive use of the patent system. And the costs are both related to the necessary time involved in the process and to the expenses. The expenses are mainly seen as the obstacle. The problem is that true information about the expenses is hard to get – in particular in the case of international patenting. But roughly, you get what you pay for. The challenge is to find out exactly what you need, and there is a huge spectrum of options. In the one end of the spectrum you will find a patent application written by the inventor himself, possibly using free of charge assistance from the patent office or other assisting entity, filed in the national patent office only. This solution will initially only cost the filing fee, which in most countries is very moderate. The “overall lifetime expenses” will be moderate, too, because they will be limited to national annual fees. In the other end of the spectrum, however, you will find extensive international patenting based on patent applications formulated by international experts who easily charge 2-300 US$ per hour. The basic patent application may be ½ cm. thick and count more than 70 patent claims – and with translation costs, filing fees and normally a huge correspondence with foreign patent offices in foreign languages, costs may be hair-raising. The below figure provides a rough and simplified illustration of the relevant patent activities (and hence the costs) as a function of the potential of the invention. A combination of the figure illustrating the overall profit potential with this figure which illustrates the overall costs will give an idea as to what sort of patent activities and costs can be justified.
