ABSTRACT
The North-South debate on intellectual property law and policy centers on global inequality. While developed countries in the global North lament the lack of adequate protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in developing countries in the global South, the latter complain about the unfair distribution of benefits provided by the current international intellectual property regime. Owing to such inequities, developing countries continue to bear the blunt of globalization and the detrimental effects of high standards of intellectual property protection and enforcement.
Written for an edited volume on intellectual property, innovation and global inequality, this chapter revisits the North-South debate on intellectual property law and policy. It begins by exploring where middle-income countries fit in this debate. The chapter then moves from the frequently documented inequality among countries to the underexplored inequality within countries – a topic that has received fast-growing attention from trade and development economists but insufficient attention in intellectual property literature. The chapter concludes with three sets of responses policymakers could put in place to address the global and national inequalities in the intellectual property field: (1) international norm-setting; (2) national policymaking; and (3) academic and policy research.
Yu, Peter K, Intellectual Property, Global Inequality and Subnational Policy Variations (January 5, 2021) in Intellectual Property, Innovation and Global Inequality, Daniel Benoliel, Francis Gurry, Keun Lee and Peter K Yu, eds, Cambridge University Press, 2021, forthcoming; Texas A&M University School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper No 21-04.
First posted 2021-01-06 09:34:33
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