Intellectual Property Rights, the WTO and Developing Countries : The TRIPS Agreement and Policy Options

This book cuts through the daunting technicalities of one of the most important of the WTO (World Trade Organization) agreements, that dealing with Intellectual Property Rights (hitherto primarily the preserve of national patent legislation) and their treatment as internationally tradeable commodities. Professor Correa makes comprehensible the TRIPS Agreement and explains its main provisions.

He is particularly concerned to explore the Agreement's massive implications for developing countries. These relate to the future of local R & D, their access to advanced technology (here he focuses on information technologies -- computer software, multimedia products, integrated circuits and digital information), commercial exploitation of natural resources and possible welfare effects. Pressure is mounting on Third World governments to implement the Agreement through national legislation. Professor Correa indicates concrete options available to implement the provisions in a manner consistent with these countries' development objectives and public policy concerns.

This book is an essential introduction to TRIPS and provides elements to develop policies and laws on intellectual property from a developing country perspective.

Professor Carlos M Correa is Director of the University of Buenos Aires Masters Programme on Science and Technology Policy and Management. Trained originally both as a lawyer and as an economist, he has made a speciality of technology and intellectual property rights. A former public servant (he was Under-Secretary of State for Informatics and Development, 1984-89, and the Argentinian Government's official delegate to GATT and WIPO during the negotiations on intellectual property rights), he has also acted as a consultant to many international and regional organisations, including UNCTAD, UNIDO, WHO, FAO, ECLA, the Interamerican Development Bank, and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity. He has also been a Visiting Professor at various universities in Latin America, Spain and Italy. He is the author of several books and articles in international journals on issues of technology and intellectual property, including Intellectual Property Rights, the WTO and Developing Countries: The TRIPS Agreement and Policy Options (Zed Books and Third World Network, 2000).


Professor Nagesh Kumar is Director General at the Research and Information System (RIS) for the Non-Aligned and Other Developing Countries, New Delhi. From 1993 to 1998, Dr Kumar served on the faculty of the United Nations University Institute for New Technologies (UNU/INTECH), Maastricht, the Netherlands, and directed its research programme on FDI and technology transfers in developing countries. He has also served as a consultant to the World Bank, UNDP, UNCTAD, UNIDO, UN-ESCAP, ILO, among other organizations. He graduated with a PhD in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi. He received the Exim Bank of India's first International Trade Research Award in 1989 and a GDN medal for best research in Tokyo for 2000. He serves as the Editor of the South Asia Economic Journal. He has written extensively on the developmental impact of MNEs and FDI, industrial and technology development policies, WTO issues, new technologies for development and on regional economic co-operation, among other themes. His recent books include Globalization, Foreign Direct Investment and Technology Transfers: Impact on and Prospects for Developing Countries, (Routledge, 1998), and Globalization and the Quality of Foreign Direct Investment (OUP, 2002).