Trading in Knowledge

Foreword

Over recent decades, there has been an unprecedented increase in the scope and level of protection of intellectual property rights (IPRs). Protectable subject matter is being widened, new rights are being created, and standards relating to IPRs are being harmonized throughout the world. As industrialized countries increasingly rely on new technologies including information and communication technologies and biotechnologies – which require considerable research and development but can be fairly easily copied or replicated – IPR protection of exported products and technologies becomes a key concern. At the global level, this trend has resulted in a significant shift in the balance of interests between private innovators and society at ...