Intellectual Property and Development : Lessons from Recent Economic Research

There have been significant changes in international regulation of intellectual property rights (IPR) over the past two decades. The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), developed by the World Trade Organization in the mid 1990s, sets out minimum standards of international protection. However, emerging global trends and technologies, such as bioinformatics, biotechnology and digitised media, are raising new questions about intellectual property law and how this will impact on developing countries. This publication brings together empirical research on a range of IPR issues, including international trade, foreign investment and competition to innovation and access to new technologies, which take into account the needs and capacity of developing countries.