The Implementation Game The TRIPS Agreement and the Global Politics of Intellectual Property Reform in Developing Countries

by Deere, Carolyn

• ISBN13: 9780199550616
• ISBN10: 0199550611
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-01-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

With the launch of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995, its Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) emerged as a symbol of coercion in international economic relations. In the decade that followed, intellectual property became one of the most contentious topics of global policy debate. This book is the first full-length study of the politics surrounding what developing countries did to implement TRIPS and why. Based on a review of the evidence from 1995 to 2007, this book emphasizes that developing countries exhibited considerable variation in their approach to TRIPS implementation. In particular, developing countries took varying degrees of advantage of the legal safeguards and options-commonly known as TRIPS 'flexibilities'--that the Agreement provides. To explain this variation, this book argues that TRIPS implementation must be understood as a complex political game played out among developing country governments and a range of stakeholders-developed countries, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), and industry groups. The contested nature of the TRIPS bargain spurred competing efforts to revise the terms of TRIPS and to influence global IP regulation more broadly. The intensity of the implementation game was amplified by an awareness among the various stakeholders that the IP reforms developing countries pursued would influence these ongoing international negotiations. The book attributes the variation in TRIPS implementation to the interplay between these global IP debates, international power pressures, and political dynamics within developing countries. The book includes historical analysis, compilations of evidence, and analysis supported by examples from across the developing world. The Implementation Game will be of interest both to scholars of international relations, law, and international political economy as well as to policymakers, commentators, and activists engaged in debates on the global governance of intellectual property.

Author Biography

Dr. Carolyn Deere is the Director of the Global Trade Governance Project at the Global Economic Governance Programme, University College, Oxford. She is also a Senior Research Associate at Oxford University's Centre for International Studies. Dr. Deere is the founder and Chair of the Board of Intellectual Property Watch - the leading news service on international intellectual property policymaking. She is also a Resident Scholar at the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) in Geneva, Switzerland. Dr. Deere's publications include 'Greening the Americas: NAFTA's Lessons for Hemispheric Trade' (co-edited with Dan Esty, MIT Press, 2001). She holds a DPhil in International Relations (University College, Oxford), an MA in International Relations (Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS)), and a degree in political economy from the University of Sydney.

Table of Contents

List of Figure and Tables
The TRIPS implementation game: a fight for ideas	p. 1
Developing countries in the global IP system	p. 34
Variation in TRIPS implementation (1995-2007)	p. 64
Post-TRIPS tensions and global IP debates	p. 113
International pressures on developing countries	p. 150
The developing country dimension: how national politics mattered	p. 196
TRIPS implementation in Francophone Africa	p. 240
The implementation game and the variation puzzle	p. 303
Selection of interviews	p. 325
Timeline of international IP agreements	p. 330
Examples of increase in IP standards in developing country WTO members from 1988 to 2007	p. 331
Variation in use of copyright flexibilities by selected developing country WTO members in the Asia-Pacific	p. 333
Examples of developing countries with bilateral agreements that included IP provisions	p. 335
Variation in TRIPS-plus provisions of selected U.S. FTAs	p. 338
U.S. Special 301 pressure on developing country WTO members and WTO disputes filed (1995-2007)	p. 341
Bibliography	p. 343
Index	p. 396
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.