Publication: Intellectual Property Rights and Knowledge Sharing Across Countries
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Published
2009
ISSN
1367-3270
Date
2012-03-30
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Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to integrate the empirical and game theoretical approaches to address the strategic interactions among countries in choosing their optimal levels of intellectual property rights (IPRs), and to identify how these countries can reach an efficient and equitable equilibrium. Design/methodology/approach - Because countries' decisions on which IPR standards and protections to implement are interrelated, the authors apply game theory to characterize the scenarios before and after the 1994 Agreement on Trade-related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) involving developed and developing countries. Findings - The model shows that the pre-TRIPS equilibrium is comprised of high-income (H-I) developed countries which choose a strong IPR protection while the middle-income (M-I) and low-income (L-I) developing countries choose a weak IPR standard. For countries to move from such an equilibrium to the uniformly strong IPR regime under TRIPS, it is necessary for the H-I countries to compensate L-I and M-I countries that do not have the sufficient conditions to attract knowledge/technology transfer This compensation covers IPR protection implementation costs and increased royalties for patents. Research limitations/implications - The model proposed in this study is not complex. In reality, the payoff functions can have more variables and parameters, which, however, may also complicate the model and lower its generalizability, Originality/value - The study explains that it is difficult for countries to reach an efficient and equitable equilibrium without the subsidies and side-payments from the developed countries to the developing countries. It builds an important bridge between the game theoretical approach and the empirical studies of TRIPS, which can be further enriched and tested. It acknowledges that it is more likely for stronger IPR standards (as in TRIPS) to be implemented than an open source approach.
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Publication Indigenous Knowledge and Intellectual Property Rights(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2000-04)The note emphasizes the critical importance of documenting indigenous knowledge in writing, which can then be used to challenge a patent claim on knowledge that is already in the public domain. It also highlights the usefulness of other forms of intellectual property rights, other than patents, such as geographical indicators. These may be of more use to indigenous communities seeking to regulate access over their resources, as they can be applied to knowledge that evolves over time, and with the input of the local community at large. This leads us to the possibility of widening the Agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), to ensure that patents disclose the origin of genetic resources, and use of indigenous knowledge, and, consider sui generis forms of intellectual property, such as community based rights, to secure equitable benefit sharing.Publication Poor People's Knowledge : Promoting Intellectual Property in Developing Countries(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2003)This book aims to expand the international discourse by: Calling attention to a broader range of knowledge that has commercial potential in developing countries. Bringing an economic dimension into the discussion of traditional knowledge, where legal analysis has thus far been at the forefront. Bringing out the incentives for and concerns of poor people-which may be different from those of corporate research, Northern nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), or already successful entertainment stars. Demonstrating that the best answer is sometimes a commercial one, for example, providing musicians basic training in small business management or reform of regulations that burden small businesses, rather than obtaining formal patent or copyright protection. Calling attention to the many income-earning (rather than the income-using) dimensions of culture-to dispel the notion that culture and commerce are necessarily in opposition. Bringing out instances in which more or less standard legal approaches have been effective as an antidote to the general sense of conflict between traditional knowledge and normal legal conceptions so as to identify the problems in which legal innovation-beyond diligent application-is really needed. Imbuing into the discourse a sense of the legal and commercial tasks needed to solve a developmental problem-away from "knowledge" as an isolated legal issue.Publication Promoting Intellectual Property Monetization in Developing Countries : A Review of Issues and Strategies to Support Knowledge-driven Growth(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-07)This paper outlines and evaluates several intellectual property monetization strategies available to patent holders in developing countries that help generate domestic innovation and knowledge-driven growth by promoting more active technology markets. Based on a review of World Intellectual Property Report indicators, the patent ownership gap between a sample of developed and developing countries has narrowed gradually for more technologically-sophisticated developing countries. However, based on complementary International Monetary Fund Balance of Payments data, the patent commercialization divide (as indicated by licensing income) has been widening. The paper argues that patents, and all forms of intellectual property, are an enabling mechanism rather than a defensive right: an intangible asset class that can be proactively nurtured and managed for greater value extraction to stimulate knowledge-based entrepreneurship and growth in developing countries. The paper presents multiple case studies of alternative monetization strategies to address the commercialization divide. These strategies range from private, market-driven options to those requiring a greater amount of public policy support: from patent securitization and patent exchanges (focusing on the United States-initiated Intellectual Property Exchange International and the Shanghai Silicon Intellectual Property Exchange), to the strengthening of technology transfer and commercialization infrastructure (focusing on the experience of the Association of University Technology Managers and Taiwan, China's Intellectual Property Rights Institute), to patent litigation support (including South Korea's support of patent infringement lawsuit costs for small and medium enterprises). The paper also highlights areas where further policy research would be helpful.Publication The Composition of Foreign Direct Investment and Protection of Intellectual Property Rights : Evidence from Transition Economies(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2002-02)While existing literature has examined the impact of intellectual property protection on the volume of foreign direct investment (FDI), little is known about its effect on the composition of FDI inflows. The author addresses this question empirically, using a unique firm-level data set from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. She finds that weak protection deters foreign investors in technology-intensive sectors that rely heavily on intellectual property rights. The results also indicate that a weak intellectual property regime encourages investors to undertake projects focusing on distribution rather than local production. The latter effect is present in all sectors, not just those relying heavily on intellectual property protection.Publication Intellectual Property Rights, Human Capital and the Incidence of R&D Expenditures(2010-02-01)Numerous studies predict that developing countries with low human capital may not benefit from the strengthening of intellectual property rights. The authors extend an influential theoretical framework to highlight the role of intellectual property rights in the process of innovation and structural change. The resulting theory is consistent with a stylized fact that appears in the data, namely that countries with poor intellectual-property protection may accumulate human capital without a corresponding increase in research and development investment as a share of national income. The model predicts that without minimum intellectual-property protection, additional education may result in more imitation rather than innovation. The preponderance of the econometric evidence presented in this paper suggests that interactions between human capital and intellectual property rights determine global patterns of research and development effort, and intellectual property rights tend to raise the effect of education on the incidence of research and development.
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