Biadgleng, Ermias Tekeste --- "The Development-Balance of the TRIPS Agreement and Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights" [2008] ELECD 212; in Malbon, Justin; Lawson, Charles (eds), "Interpreting and Implementing the TRIPS Agreement" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2008)

Book Title: Interpreting and Implementing the TRIPS Agreement

Editor(s): Malbon, Justin; Lawson, Charles

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847201447

Section: Chapter 6

Section Title: The Development-Balance of the TRIPS Agreement and Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights

Author(s): Biadgleng, Ermias Tekeste

Number of pages: 34

Extract:

6. The development-balance of the
TRIPS agreement and enforcement
of intellectual property rights
Ermias Tekeste Biadgleng

1. INTRODUCTION

The intellectual property (IP) and development discourse invokes an
intriguing debate that intersects the assumed objectives of promoting
innovation with concerns about the actual cost for industrialisation and
public welfare in developing countries. The developed countries as major
inventors continue to maintain an advantageous position regarding the
utilisation of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual
Property Rights (TRIPS). Developing countries, with limited exceptions,
have yet to see the promised better days under TRIPS. They are primarily
concerned about gaining IP benefits from learning, reverse engineering and
the acquisition of existing technologies. Despite the development concerns
arising from TRIPS, the G-8 leaders and the United States (US)­European
Union (EU) summit adopted a trans-Atlantic agenda on worldwide
enforcement of IP rights. The agenda underlines the shift in the position of
the advanced countries from setting the standards towards monitoring the
enforcement of IP rights in developing countries (European Union 2006).
The enforcement of TRIPS requires an assessment of the level of adjust-
ment expected of developing countries, the degree that TRIPS facilitates
technology transfers and the extent of the reward for the contribution of
developing countries in terms of biological resources, traditional knowl-
edge and cultural expression.
There is a link between TRIPS and IP rights in general with normative
justifications for the promotion of innovation through reward systems,
including through the institution of legal rights to reward ...