Trade Research - ImagebankContents

About

Countries

Data & Research

Learning

News

Projects & Operations

Publications

Topics

Home > Data & Research > Research > Programs > Trade Research > ImagebankContents

Intellectual property rights and the TRIPS agreement : an overview of ethical problems and some proposed solutions

Author:	Sonderholm, Jorn;	Collection Title:	Policy Research working paper ; no. WPS 5228
Country:	World;	Date Stored:	2010/03/02
Document Date:	2010/03/01	Document Type:	Policy Research Working Paper
Language:	English	Region:	The World Region
Report Number:	WPS5228	SubTopics:	Markets and Market Access; Economic Theory & Research; Debt Markets; Population Policies; E-Business
Volume No:	1 of 1

Summary: The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights negotiated in 1986 under the auspices of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the institutional predecessor of the World Trade Organization, incorporated substantial and uniform protections of intellectual property rights into the international trade system. A large body of contemporary academic literature suggests that intellectual property rights on socially valuable goods such as essential medicines give rise to a number of ethical problems. This review paper seeks to give an overview of these problems. Moreover, it offers an outline and discussion of a number of proposals as to how these problems might be alleviated. The paper is primarily descriptive in character. This means that although a personal perspective is sometimes offered, the primary ambition of the paper is not to argue for, and defend, a particular solution to the issues discussed. The aim is rather to highlight, explain and put into perspective a number of important arguments in the debate on the ethical nature of intellectual property rights so that policy-makers and other stakeholders are relatively well-equipped to make up their own mind on the issue.


Official Documents Official, scanned versions of documents (may include signatures, etc.)
File Type		Description	File Size (mb)

	PDF 48 pages	Official version*	3.36 (approx.)
	Text	Text version**

* The official version is derived from scanning the final, paper copy of the document and is the official,
archived version including all signatures, charts, etc.

** The text version is the OCR text of the final scanned version and is not an accurate representation of the final text.
It is provided solely to benefit users with slow connectivity.

Permanent URL for this page: http://go.worldbank.org/NW5YO2Y570