Research Essay for Intellectual Property Rights - MyAssignmenthelp

Question: Write about theResearch Essay for Intellectual Property Rights. Answer: As globalization is evading barriers to communications and trade, it is developing new forms of segregation due to the wide of technology between the rich and the poor countries. This is evident from the fact that the developed countries retain the economic power while the least developed or the developing countries persist to face economic marginalization[1]. In order to enhance capacity and promote both economic progress and human development, the developing countries are encouraged to accelerate entrepreneurialism, support innovation and improve the acquisition of technical skills. Under the legal framework of the global Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) which is primarily based on the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement (TRIPS Agreement), the member states off the World Trade Organization (WTO) are required to adhere to the stipulated minimum standards of IPRs protection. The IPRs endow the investors with incentives to invest in research and developm ent of new technologies and permit them to reap returns on their investments by way of providing them with monopoly rights. However, the present regime of the TRIPS agreement fails to strike an appropriate balance between developing private incentives and advancing technology transfers and promoting development for the benefit of the public. The current regime has been subject to several criticisms owing to its failure to maintain balance between the benefits of the public and the private incentives[2]. Before the enforcement of the TRIPS Agreement, the developing countries had minimal incentives to form a highly protective IPRs legal framework instead; they concentrated primarily on supporting free flow of information and acquiring a technological base. The challengers of strong IPRs regime in the developing countries argued that the developing countries require accessibility to the Western Technology in order to enhance their technological growth. The argument implies that information must be provided to the developing nations with limited restrictions, as development of the developing nations is one of the arenas of interest of all the nations worldwide. The opponents of the IPRs protection further argued that most of the developed countries have been enjoying exceptional freedom in exploiting intellectual property for the development of their own economy prior to the commencement of the TRIPs Agreement[3]. However, if the agreement comes to effect, it would adversely affect the economic growth, as it would compel the developing countries to pay for the usage of the intellectual property as is evident from the corporations and individuals in developed countries. On the other hand, developed countries are heavily dependent on transfer of information and technology and consider it as a fundamental aspect of their economies, argued in favour of a highly protective IPRs regime as opposed to the developing countries[4]. These countries are of the opinion that organized piracy weakens the incentive structure that trade mark, patent or copyright purports to protect and moreover, with the implementation of the TRIPs agreement the developing nations would be able to enhance the innovative activities domestically and provide greater availability of advanced technologies from foreign countries[5]. The intellectual rights strike a balance between the needs of society for the purpose of encouraging innovation and development of new technologies, literary and artistic works. The developing countries expect that a stronger and effective intellectual property protection regime may encourage domestic innovation, technical improvements, etc. the developing countries have IPRs systems that supports dissemination of information through low-cost imitation of foreign technologies and products which implies that prospects for domestic innovation and invention are not adequately developed to secure protection. This is simply because most of the product innovations concentrates on domestic markets and are benefitted from domestic protection of utility models, trade secrets and patents and such inventions involve minor adaptations of prevailing products and technologies[6]. In order to become competitive, the corporations in developing countries must adopt new management techniques for quality control, to enhance market productivity. Such investments are expensive but they have a tendency to have soaring social returns and play a crucial role in increasing productivity toward international standard[7]. For instance, protection provided by utility models has proved to improve productivity in countries having poor technologies. In Brazil, utility models have enabled domestic producers to achieve a significant share of the farm-machinery market by supporting adaptation of foreign technologies to domestic conditions. While IPRs claim to enhance growth and development under appropriate circumstances, it may lead to difficulties relating to the social and economic costs. The TRIPS agreement has failed to achieve balance between the developed nations and developing nations with respect to the various competing claims of both the nations[8]. The developing countries may have to face net welfare losses in the short-run owing to the several expenses associated with the protection that may arise earlier than the advantages mentioned above. Another criticism that the TRIPS agreement is subjected to is that the agreement does not provide an appropriate uniform standard for the diverse array of states. On one hand, the developed nations already possess appropriate levels of IPR protection because of which the IP right-holders benefit from the enhanced and highly protective IPRs regime. On the other hand, the developing nations experience economic loss as it is expensive to develop the appropriate enforceme nt and administrative mechanism that is required to support the current highly protective IPRs regime. Although the agreement aims at providing the developing countries with long-term gains with the strengthening of the system, the shift to the stronger protection involves expenses in the short-run and such expenses are not trivial by nature. To conclude, the TRIPS Agreement is a form of IPR protection that is advantageous to the developed countries as they are in a more beneficial stage under the agreement as compared to the developing nation. The Agreement contracts the developing nations accessibility to technology and daunts the diffusion of the advanced technology that is required for the development of the economy. It fails to achieve the balance between developing private incentives and promoting transfer of technology for the benefit of the public. Reference List Bellmann, Christophe, and Ricardo Melendez-Ortiz, eds.Trading in Knowledge:" Development Perspectives on TRIPS, Trade and Sustainability". Routledge, 2013. Cimoli, Mario, et al. "The role of intellectual property rights in developing countries: Some conclusions."Intellectual Property Rights: Legal and Economic Challenges for Development(2014): 503-513. Cimoli, Mario, et al.Intellectual property rights: legal and economic challenges for development. Oxford University Press, 2014. Mani, Sunil, and Richard R. Nelson, eds.TRIPS compliance, national patent regimes and innovation: evidence and experience from developing countries. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2013. Maskus, Keith E. "Patents and Technology Transfer through Trade and the Role of Regional Trade Agreements." (2016). Rimmer, Matthew. "Trade wars in the TRIPS Council: Intellectual property, technology transfer, and climate change." (2016). Roa, Carolina, et al. "Plant genetic resources: Needs, rights, and opportunities."Trends in Plant Science21.8 (2016): 633-636. Watal, Jayashree. "Is TRIPS a Balanced Agreement from the Perspective of Recent Free Trade Agreements?."EU Bilateral Trade Agreements and Intellectual Property: For Better or Worse?. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2014. 41-57.