Despite the WTO agreement on Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights implemented in 1995, international coordination of intellectual property (IP) policy remains contentious. This paper reviews recent research addressing whether IP policy should be standardized across countries, and whether IP protection has become overly cumbersome. It concludes that much IP protection is excessive (possibly reflecting regulatory “capture”) and that international standardization has regressive redistributive effects and unclear efficiency effects. Coordinated decentralization would be preferred. It also suggests that much intellectual property protection can be viewed as “strategic trade policy” whose primary effect is “profit-shifting” rather than the enhancement of economic efficiency.