Perhaps the greatest uncertainty concerned the extent to which big US corporations would get what they wanted in the areas of investor-government dispute settlement and intellectual property protection. The TPP’s critics often neglected to acknowledge that international dispute-settlement mechanisms could ever serve a valid purpose, or that some degree of patent protection is needed if pharmaceutical companies are to have sufficient incentive to invest in research and development.
也许最大的不确定性在于美国大公司能在多大程度上在投资者-政府纠纷解决和知识产权保护等领域得偿所愿。TPP批评者常常不承认国际纠纷解决机制能够有助于合理目的，或者，要让制药公司有足够的激励投资于研发就必须进行一定程度的专利保护。