Open Access

Annabelle Lever, Cristian Timmermann

• The twentieth century has seen a striking expansion in the scope, application and geographic reach of intellectual property rights (IPR) – that is, of legal rights that enable the rights holder to use, withhold, license and transfer ideas for profit, in exchange for registering them publicly. There is widespread consensus that the Agreement of Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS, 1994) in the World Trade Organization marked a turning point in the globalisation of minimum standards of intellectual property protection applicable to all countries after a ten-year transition time (Drahos & Braithwaite, 2003). By linking intellectual property protection to trade agreements, exclusive rights holders from strong economies gained the ability to enforce the protection of their interests through trade sanctions, rather than, as previously, through lawsuits for infringement of property rights. Countries building up their industries are now prevented from designingThe twentieth century has seen a striking expansion in the scope, application and geographic reach of intellectual property rights (IPR) – that is, of legal rights that enable the rights holder to use, withhold, license and transfer ideas for profit, in exchange for registering them publicly. There is widespread consensus that the Agreement of Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS, 1994) in the World Trade Organization marked a turning point in the globalisation of minimum standards of intellectual property protection applicable to all countries after a ten-year transition time (Drahos & Braithwaite, 2003). By linking intellectual property protection to trade agreements, exclusive rights holders from strong economies gained the ability to enforce the protection of their interests through trade sanctions, rather than, as previously, through lawsuits for infringement of property rights. Countries building up their industries are now prevented from designing intellectual property policies that are tailored to their stage of technological development although, historically, countries in the Global North had significantly different IP policies as they industrialised. (Boyle, 2008; Khan, 2005; May 2007 see Cartwright & Morin, Chapter 18 in this volume). These developments highlight the fluidity but also the political and economic significance of IPRs and remind us that an ethical evaluation of their properties is important for global justice broadly conceived. In this chapter, we identify the different stakeholders in IPRs, examine their conflicting interests, and analyse shortcomings in deliberation processes over IPRs. We also sketch ways to address several problems with the current IP regime.…