Intellectual Property Rights: Legal and Economic Challenges for Development

In recent years, Intellectual Property Rights - both in the form of patents and copyrights - have expanded in their coverage, the breadth and depth of protection, and the tightness of their enforcement. Moreover, for the first time in history, the IPR regime has become increasingly uniform at international level by means of the TRIPS agreement, irrespectively of the degrees of development of the various countries. This volume, first, addresses from different angles the effects of IPR on the processes of innovation and innovation diffusion in general, and with respect to developing countries in particular. Contrary to a widespread view, there is very little evidence that the rates of innovation increase with the tightness of IPR even in developed countries. Conversely, in many circumstances, tight IPR represents an obstacle to imitation and innovation diffusion in developing countries. What can policies do then? This is the second major theme of the book which offers several detailed discussions of possible policy measures even within the current TRIPS regime - including the exploitation of the waivers to IPR enforcement that it contains, various forms of development of 'technological commons', and non-patent rewards to innovators, such as prizes. Some drawbacks of the regimes, however, are unavoidable: hence the advocacy in many contributions to the book of deep reforms of the system in both developed and developing countries, including the non-patentability of scientific discoveries, the reduction of the depth and breadth of IPR patents, and the variability of the degrees of IPR protection according to the levels of a country's development. Contributors to this volume - Minna Allarakhia, University of Waterloo Leonardo Burlamaqui, The Ford Foundation, New York Sarah Chan Mario Cimoli, ECLAC, United Nations, Santiago and University of Venice Ca' Foscari Robert Cook-Deegan, Duke University Benjamin Coriat, Universite Paris 13 Carlos M. Correa Giovanni Dosi, Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa Timo Goeschl, University of Heidelberg Michael Halewood John Harris Albert Guangzhou Hu, National University of Singapore Adam B. Jaffe, Brandeis University Amy Kapczynski, University of California, Berkeley Keith E. Maskus, University of Colorado Boulder Roberto Mazzoleni, Hofstra University Richard G. Newell Alessandro Nuvolari, Sant' Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa Ruth L. Okediji, University of Minnesota Law School Luigi Orsenigo, University Institute for Advanced Studies Arti K. Rai, Duke University School of Law Jerome H. Reichman, Duke University School of Law Pedro Roffe, International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) Bhaven N. Sampat, Columbia University Anthony D. So, Duke University Christopher Spennemann, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Joseph E. Stiglitz, Columbia University John Sulston Tim Swanson, The Graduate Institute, Geneva Valentina Tartari, Imperial College, London Robert Weissman, Essential Action, Washington, D.C. Jonathan B. Wiener, Duke University