"Introduction" [2009] ELECD 577; in Meléndez-Ortiz, Ricardo; Roffe, Pedro (eds), "Intellectual Property and Sustainable Development" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2009)

Book Title: Intellectual Property and Sustainable Development

Editor(s): Meléndez-Ortiz, Ricardo; Roffe, Pedro

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848446458

Section Title: Introduction

Number of pages: 12

Extract:

Introduction
Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz and Pedro Roffe

THE NEW INTERNATIONAL INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
ARCHITECTURE

Whether in discussions on technological progress and innovation, public health, food
security, education, trade, industrial policy, traditional knowledge, biodiversity, biotech-
nology, the Internet or the entertainment and media industries, intellectual property (IP)
has become a particularly contentious issue economically and politically. Through its
chapters, this book explores an array of perspectives on the current state and future of
IP. For many, however, IP is an entirely new subject. Indeed, historically, it was the exclu-
sive domain of legal specialists and the owners and producers of goods and services with
intellectual property content.
Not many developing countries have had much direct experience of IP policy, even in
cases where such legal systems have existed for many years. Paradoxically, particularly
over the past few years, IP has become an area in which developing countries have come
under pressure to reform and to become more vigilant regarding the protection and
enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPRs).
The substantive obligations and rules set forth in the World Trade Organization
(WTO) Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)
of 1994 are now widely accepted as the centrepiece of the new international IP architec-
ture. The incorporation of IPR issues into the international trading system has offered a
golden opportunity to ensure that international obligations are not only an integral part
of national regimes, but that failure to implement and enforce the minimum standards
required by TRIPS constitutes a ...