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For centuries, international exhibitions have been a staple on the calendar, initially, dotting the capitals of Europe, and then major non-European cities such as Chicago, Melbourne and Philadelphia. Over the centuries, international exhibitions became the venue to unveil new technologies or designs and new inventions. In this chapter, I examine how international exhibitions in the latter part of the nineteenth century have been crucial for industrial innovation and their contribution in the adoption of the Paris Convention of 1883. The chapter then demonstrate how the Paris Convention was instrumental in the expansion of the principles on protecting innovation and how those principles were adopted in other treaties such as the Montevideo Convention of 1889. The chapter present these arguments against the backdrop of innovation diplomacy where private interests and nineteenth century lobbying essentially lead to the era of the “treatification” of international law. The treatification arise in part through intellectual property rights as set out in the Paris Convention and the mission to “civilise”, that is, expanding the principles of intellectual property protection in emerging “civilised” nations such as those in Latin America.