The Pacific Alliance: Adding Value to the Global Intellectual Property Rights Regime?

Abstract

Countries of the Pacific Alliance (PA) stand out for their good performance in terms of compliance with international standards on the protection of intellectual property rights (IPRs). However, the low level of innovation and technical sophistication of their productive sectors suggest that their attempts to defend these standards as enabling conditions for a virtuous cycle of technological-driven growth have been unsuccessful. While national administrations have in many cases taken advantage of the regulatory space offered by so-called “flexibilities”, in the existing international framework of IPR, mitigating the effects of the extended rights protection pursued by some stakeholders, the economic logic under which that framework was designed does not seem to take into account the current trends towards global value chains, digital economy, mobility of scientists and the ubiquity of services or the prevalence of foreign direct investment. Underlying this complex scenario is one critical fact: the current deadlock in negotiations within the World Trade Organization (WTO) makes a redesign of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) unlikely. Underlying this complex scenario is one critical fact: the economic logic under which the TRIPS Agreement was designed does not seem to consider the current trends for global value chains, digital economy, mobility of scientists, ubiquity of services and prevalence of foreign direct investments.