Views on the Future of the Intellectual Property

Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010

Edited Volume - This comprehensive book considers new and emerging IP issues from a development perspective, examining recent trends and developments in this area. Presenting an overview of the IP landscape in general, the contributing authors subsequently narrow their focus, providing wide-ranging case studies from countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America on topical issues in the current IP discourse. These include the impact of IP on the pharmaceutical sector, the protection of life forms and traditional knowledge, geographical indications, access to knowledge and public research institutes, and the role of competition policy. The challenges developing countries face in the TRIPS-Plus world are also explored in detail.

Liberalization of Services and Intellectual Property in the Uruguay Round of GATT , 1990

Relação de Publicados n. 59. Relação de Originais n. 174. 1. The "Scientific" Mode of Production 2. Technological Protectionism and Confidentiality 3. Two World Views on Intellectual Property Protection 4. The Economic Impact on Developing Countries 5. A Failed Multilateralisation ?

The paper begins by advancing reasons for why freedom of design over property rights matters to countries. It shows that the international regime for intellectual property protection is increasingly circumscribing the freedom of developing countries to set efficient standards of protection for their economies. The bulk of the paper is devoted to elaborating a proposal for a new framework of intellectual property protection. This framework takes the form of a treaty on access to knowledge that is linked to human rights and that is driven by nodally constituted standard-setting committees that are committed to evidence-based standard-setting. * I would like to Dr Werner Raza for suggesting that I explore this topic in detail, the three anonymous reviewers of this article for their constructive suggestions, Ms Cecily Stewart for her research assistance and Professor John Braithwaite for his comments on an earlier draft.

Mich. St. L. Rev., 2007

African Journal of Legal Studies

The paper examines the implication of International Intellectual Property (ip) laws and agreements on the sustainable development of Least Developed Countries (ldcs) and Developed Countries (dcs) and suggests approaches for improving the development and wellbeing of people in the developing world through national ip laws. The paper argues that generally international ip agreements may appear biased against developing countries and most dcs are reluctant to challenge the status quo and/or use the flexibilities of the international ip agreement to promote the wellbeing of their citizens. However, the article finds that ldcs and dcs could change this trend through the creative use of national ip laws and international agreements to promote the sustainable development of ldcs and dcs. The major instrument suggested for this shift in approach is the establishment of national ip administration institutions and the positive use of compulsory licences.

Science, technology and innovation discussion Paper, 1999

This paper reviews the implications of the agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) under the World Trade Organization (WTO). It focuses on the national implemention of the TRIPS agreement, technological development, plant variety protection, geopgraphical indications, and biological diversity and the associated indigenous knowledge. The paper argues that efforts to promote compliance with to the TRIPS agreement should be accompanied by measures that address public interest challenges such as health, nutrition and environmental conservation in developing countries. It suggests that addressing these issues will require policy and institutional innovations in the developed and developing countries. While some of the measures can be addressed through multilateral forums, many of them should be addressed through domestic laws and policies designed to foster innnovation and expand international trade.

The role of intellectual property (IP) law in the economy, trade and business as well as in social life has grown enormously both within industrial nations and on the international level. Deep changes in the ways that people create ideas, goods, and wealth are reshaping the global economy. Those changes make innovation—the creation of new goods and services-the center of economic activity. However, the resulting uncertainty and confusion about what exactly constitutes IP and the extent to which society can afford to grant and protect them has begun to impact negatively on science and innovation, economies and cultures, across the globe. The professionals, legislators and policy makers have already been repeatedly called upon to revisit this problem (the latest in the UK being the Adelphi Charter). The Adelphi Charter on Creativity, Innovation and Intellectual Property is a global statement of principles for a fair, user-friendly and efficient way of regulating creativity and intellectual property. It responds to one of the most profound challenges of the 21st century: How to ensure that everyone has access to ideas and knowledge, while being justly rewarded, and that intellectual property laws do not become too restrictive. It calls on governments to apply a new public interest test of copyright and patents. In response, TRIPS agreement, in 2007 made attempts to address these concerns by calling, in article 7, for intellectual property protection that would contribute to technical innovation and for the transfer of technology that would benefit both producers and users of intellectual property and would improve economic and social well-being. This decision basically added development to the TRIPS agenda as a key effort to address criticisms. Thus the Essence of this paper is that, the TRIPS Agreement strongly protects intellectual property rights at a global level with a view to stimulating creativity, inventiveness and technological progress. Yet, an over-protection and abuse of such rights might jeopardize the public interests in a sector that is of vital importance to the socioeconomic and technological development of several developing and least-developed countries.

Journal of Politics and Law, 2013

The relevance of Intellectual Property protection to our day to day activities has been repeatedly shown to be a settled matter. Humanity seems bent on creating a world economy primarily based on goods and services that take no material form or shape. And just as nature of property changes, so is the system of its exploitation. This paper looks at the evolution, nature and scope of the traditional fields of Intellectual Property Law that seek to protect the rights of inventors and authors to control or exclude others from unauthorised exploitation of their mental creations. The body of laws that evolve to provide this protection has unequivocally developed in to essential jurisprudence that is necessary for economic advance of the developed and more especially the developing countries. Although intellectual property systems vary from one national system to another, the basic principles of intellectual property law and practice seem to be the same in a number of ways, and thus, the paper attempts a general overview of the concepts and issues involved in this branch of law as well as the myriad of functions they strive to serve. It has been shown that the indispensable nature of intellectual property make it imperative to all stakeholders to work towards a healthy intellectual property system that will provide access to knowledge , experience and expertise that results to mutual benefit to all.

This Article considers, first, available economic, social, and cultural analyses of the impact of intellectual property protection in developing countries. Economics provides a useful set of analytical tools and are directly relevant, in particular since the successfully arranged marriage of IP and trade rules after which it became inevitable that IP rules would be measured using an economic yardstick. The Paper also considers the claim that making proper intellectual property policy is impossible or inherently unreliable because theoretical models are inadequate or valid empirical data unavailable. Against this backdrop, the Article then examines the emergence of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). TRIPS added a significant level of comfort for multinational corporations deciding when and where to export to new markets or expand research and development efforts. The Article also considers the Doha Ministerial Declaration of November 2001 and follow-up work on access to medicines. In the second Part, this Article discusses recent economic analyses of the impact of IP protection on bilateral trade flows and foreign direct investment (FDI). Wherever possible, lessons about the right level of intellectual protection for developing countries are drawn. Recent efforts in the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the WTO are also discussed. In a third and final part, the Article looks at the current quest for a balanced approach and suggests ways in which such a balanced IP regime could be constructed, as part of a broad, knowledge-oriented economic development strategy.