Haunss, Sebastian; Kohlmorgen, Lars --- "Lobbying or Politics? Political Claims Making in IP Conflicts" [2009] ELECD 532; in Haunss, Sebastian; Shadlen, C. Kenneth (eds), "Politics of Intellectual Property" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2009)

Book Title: Politics of Intellectual Property

Editor(s): Haunss, Sebastian; Shadlen, C. Kenneth

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848443037

Section: Chapter 6

Section Title: Lobbying or Politics? Political Claims Making in IP Conflicts

Author(s): Haunss, Sebastian; Kohlmorgen, Lars

Number of pages: 22

Extract:

6. Lobbying or politics? Political
claims making in IP conflicts
Sebastian Haunss and Lars Kohlmorgen1

1. INTRODUCTION

In the official declaration of the 2007 G8 summit in Heiligendamm,
Germany, the heads of government of the eight most powerful industri-
alized countries gave the "protection of intellectual property rights" top
priority. In fact, IP protection was mentioned in their final statement even
ahead of climate change, as a political issue of crucial importance, pre-
ceded only by global economic growth, the stability of financial markets,
and the freedom of investment. The statement stressed that "Innovation
is one of the crucial drivers of economic growth in our countries. . . . The
protection of IPRs is of core interest for consumers in all countries, par-
ticularly in developing countries" (G8 2007, 2). This prominent placement
reflects the growing importance of the politics of intellectual property,
which has changed over the last 15 years from a field of technical expertise
to an increasingly contentious global political issue.
How did the protection of intellectual property (IP) become such a
high-level issue? And how has the idea that strong intellectual property
regimes should be a central component of any global trade regime become
the dominant view?
Susan Sell (2003) shows in her study of the history of the Agreement
on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) how,
during the Uruguay round of global trade talks, a small group of trans-
national corporations successfully got IP protection on the agenda and
subsequently managed to codify their ...