Foreword

Foreword

Description

From both a theoretical and a practical perspective, this book is an important resource. Ever since the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (the TRIPS Agreement) set out the minimum standards of intellectual property protection for members of the World Trade Organization (WTO), considerable attention has focused on the wisdom of moving towards a system that is more deeply harmonised and that mandates the recognition of even stronger rights. For the most part, the debate centres on questions of technological development. To many, countries that are behind the technology curve gain little from strong protection, even when it is offset by market access for their own products. The products developing countries sell (raw commodities, manufactures) are priced competitively and therefore earn rather scant returns, while the ‘knowledge products’ developing countries must buy (pharmaceuticals, manufacturing equipment, educational materials) are patented, copyrighted and trade marked—and priced well above marginal cost. International obligations to impose high standards of intellectual property protection can therefore cause considerable injustice, for these rights siphon funds from poor countries to rich ones. At the same time, proponents of raising worldwide standards point to the post-TRIPS success of the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and suggest that strong protection will benefit other developing countries as well. Intellectual property laws can create powerful inducements to domestic innovators. Furthermore, they promote technology transfer, help establish local creative industries and motivate governments to prioritise activities that move their countries to the intellectual frontier. While this conversation is interesting and important, lost in it is another dimension of the harmonisation issue: market size. Based on the debate set out above, one might think that the interests of all advanced economies would be in alignment, for any country that innovates at world-class levels can reap supra-competitive returns from the global market. This book dispels that notion. Its careful analysis of patent, copyright, trade mark and related law in three economies—New Zealand, Singapore and Israel—demonstrates why small market economies do (or should) develop their own approach to the design of intellectual property laws and institutions.

Source Publication

Test Tubes for Global Intellectual Property Issues: Small Market Economies

Publication Date

2015

Foreword

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