Weaponizing the Long Arm of IP Law

I have a short piece over at the Diplomat about some of the legal hangups Canada’s new frigate program has encountered:

Canada is looking to build some impressive new frigates, but it first needs to deal with an increasingly common problem: the tyranny of export controls. One of Canada’s partners in the frigate project is objecting to the use of electronics in the construction project, and has asked for direct negotiations with the Canadian government. 

This is part of the Patents for Power project, which studies the impact of intellectual property law on the diffusion of military technology.