Economics Of Intellectual Property Rights Research Articles

Leveraging intellectual property rights to encourage green product design and remanufacturing for sustainable waste management

There is increasing industrial and academic interest in remanufacturing as a more sustainable production process than those that utilize virgin or recycled materials, and therefore as a promising contributor to sustainable waste management plans. Yet, prevailing incentives are seemingly inadequate for achieving socially optimal rates of remanufacturing activity. The contribution of our paper is to combine the economics of green design literature with the concepts of “raising rivals’ costs” and the economics of intellectual property rights. In so doing, we show that a regulator could raise social welfare by strengthening original manufacturer (OM) intellectual property rights in exchange for a decrease in physical product attributes built into products by OMs that inhibit remanufacturing. This result suggests that the structure of intellectual property rights should be considered a policy lever in sustainable waste management planning.

Climate Change and Intellectual Property Rights for New Plant Varieties

Debates between developing and developed countries over access to technology to mitigate or adapt to climate change tend to overlook the importance of biotechnology. There has been little comparative analysis of competing IPR regimes for biotechnology. Moreover, the role that compulsory licensing might play in international biotechnology transfer has not been explored in depth. This article focuses on the role of intellectual property rights (IPRs) in the international transfer of new plant varieties. Climate change will increase the importance of the development of new plant varieties (primarily genetically modified ones) that can adapt to changing (and more extreme) climactic conditions. We begin our analysis by examining the science and impact of climate change. We then provide an overview of the debates regarding IPRs and international technology transfer. We argue that the impact of IPRs on international technology transfer varies from one area of technology to the next. IPRs represent a more significant obstacle to international biotechnology transfer than they do in other technologies. Subsistence farming increases developing countries’ vulnerability to climate change and their need to access the biotechnology on favorable terms. In this regard, the issues that arise with respect to biotechnology are closer to those regarding pharmaceuticals than to those regarding clean energy technology. We therefore compare the economics of IPRs for biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. We then provide a comparative analysis of IPRs for biotechnology in the WTO TRIPS Agreement, the UPOV Convention and the Convention on Biological Diversity. This analysis sheds light on the policy options available to developing countries under the current international legal regime.

Technological flows and choice of joint ventures in technology alliances

This paper analyses the influence of technological flows in the choice of joint ventures as a governance form of technology alliances, using a theoretical framework based on Transaction Costs Economics and the Economics of Intellectual Property Rights. We argue that the formation of a joint venture is only necessary in situations for which technological flows make the monitoring of alliance activities and the distribution of cooperation rents difficult. Our hypotheses have been confirmed using a sample of technology alliances created by companies from the European Union between 1992 and 1999.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS AND DISPUTE SETTLEMENT IN THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION

With the advent of the TRIPS Agreement, international disputes about governmental regulation of intellectual property rights (IPRs) are now subject to adjudication within the WTO dispute resolution mechanism. The standard model used by economists to explain dispute settlement procedures is misleading, for the process is not about preventing countries from exercising market power. Rather, the system is designed to resolve political market failures arising within countries that would be harmful to market access for foreign firms. These issues arise particularly in the context of IPRs, which may be used as cross-market bargaining chips. This possibility is illustrated by the petition of Ecuador to suspend concessions in this area for European firms in the context of the EU – Banana case. The scope of such an approach remains unclear and there are many fundamental questions deserving close analysis. In this paper I make several basic points relating to the economics of IPRs and the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) dispute settlement process. 1 These comments underscore the fact that the injection of IPRs into the global trading system raises a new dimension for settling disputes.

Intellectual Property Rights and Dispute Settlement in the World Trade Organization

This paper makes several basic points relating to the economics of Intellectual Property Rights, the TRIPS Agreement, and the World Trade Organization dispute settlement process.

The economics of intellectual property rights

The economics of intellectual property rights

Economics of intellectual property rights in the international arena.

Many issues relating to the protection of intellectual property are economic in nature. This article applies economic analysis to several of those issues that arise in an international context. The first model concerns how one nation's choice of a particular form of protection will affect the economic welfare of its trading partners. Then the economics of unilateral, bilateral, and multilateral action are compared. The final analyses cover the optimal number of members in a multilateral agreement and the choice between mutually exclusive international agreements.