Introduction

Peter Drahos

pp. 1-9

in: Peter Drahos, Ruth Mayne (eds), Global intellectual property rights, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2002

Abstract

Intellectual property rights have gone global. States around the globe are converging upon the same set of intellectual property standards in areas of law such as copyright, patents, trademarks and industrial designs, as well as upon the remedies available for the enforcement of these rights. Moreover, in many cases states are shifting to higher standards than previously prevailed in their domestic law — longer terms of protection, fewer exceptions to the scope of rights and sometimes new rights. The case for the globalisation of standards in some areas of regulation seems clear cut. Not many would argue the case for patchily applied or lower standards of aircraft safety or nuclear power station regulation. Is the case for the globalisation of higher standards of intellectual property, standards which affect access to things like medicines, books and information technology, persuasive in the way that it seems to be for aircraft safety or nuclear power station operation? The chapters in this volume suggest that the case for the globalisation of intellectual property rights is anything but persuasive. More disturbingly, the chapters in Part II suggest that global intellectual property rules may well be an obstacle to development.