Intellectual Property Rights, the WTO and Developing Countries

Product 4/11

Intellectual Property Rights, the WTO and Developing Countries

USD 16.00 Publisher: Zed Books & TWN
ISBN: 983-9747-40-1
Year: 2000
No. of pages: 268
Size of book: 14.5cm x 21.5cm
Author: Carlos M. Correa

About the Book

The whole architecture of international trade is being fundamentally recast by the various agreements which the new agency, the World Trade Organisation, is responsible for policing. This book cuts through the daunting technicalities of one of the most important of these agreements, that dealing with Intellectual Property Rights (hitherto mainly the preserve of national IPRs legislation) and their treatment as internationally tradeable commodities. Professor Correa makes comprehensible what the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is about and explains its main provisions.

He is particularly concerned to explore the Agreement's massive implications for developing countries. These relate to the future of local R&D, their access to advanced technology, commercial exploitation of their natural rsources and the welfare effects. Pressure is mounting on Third World governments to implement the Agreement through national legislation, and this book uses the Latin American and Caribbean experience to show the many implementation problems that have arisen.

Professor Correa focuses also on information technologies, notably computer software, multimedia products, integrated circuits and digital information. Another increasingly important area, the conservation and sustainable utilization of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, is examined in relation to how access to such resources for research and breeding may be affected by the granting of IPRs protection.

Throughout his pathbreaking book, Professor Correa is concerned not only to spell out the implications for developing countries but also to indicate concrete options available at the national level to implement the provisions of the TRIPS Agreement in a manner consistent with development objectives and public policy concerns.

This book is an essential introduction to TRIPS and provides elements to develop policies and laws on intellectual property from a developing-country perspective.

About the Author

Professor Carlos Correa is currently Director of the University of Buenos Aires' Masters Programme on Science and Technology Policy and Management. Trained as both a lawyer and an economist, he has acted as a consultant to numerous international agencies.

Add to Cart: