Intellectual Property Rights, the WTO and Developing Countries

The architecture of international trade is being fundamentally recast by the bundle of agreements now policed by the World Trade Organisation. This book seeks to cut through the daunting technicalities of one of the most important of these agreements: TRIPS - the Trade-Related Intellectual Property [...]
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The architecture of international trade is being fundamentally recast by the bundle of agreements now policed by the World Trade Organisation. This book seeks to cut through the daunting technicalities of one of the most important of these agreements: TRIPS - the Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights Agreement. It clarifies what the TRIPS Agreement is about, explains its main provisions, and shows the significance of the treatment of these rights as internationally tradeable commodities. The author is particularly concerned to demonstrate the huge implications for developing countries in terms of their access to advanced technology, Western corporate control of local natural resources, and consumer welfare. As pressure mounts on Third World governments to implement the Agreement, he makes clear how precisely the South can limit the potential damage by taking advantage of various aspects of the TRIPS Agreement.