Undertaking the global project of improving intellectual property demands a critical and dynamic evaluation of its parameters and impacts. This innovative book considers what it means to improve intellectual property globally, exploring various aspects and perspectives of the international intellectual property debate and contemplating the possibilities for reform. Building upon the seminal contributions of Rochelle Dreyfuss, an international team of eminent intellectual property scholars address some of the most pressing questions surrounding the improvement of intellectual property law's role in promoting innovation. The book explores intellectual property's shifting boundaries and balance; its increasing relation to other global public goods such as public health; its re-configuration of traditional categories and concepts; its contradictory and incomplete implementation in international law; and its changing institutions. While diverse in subject matter, the individual contributions share the common premise that intellectual property must continually re-assess its foundational assumptions, doctrines, policies, and rationales against evolving political economies, social demands, and technologies. Thought-provoking and accessible, Improving Intellectual Property will prove an invaluable resource for academics, researchers, and students of international intellectual property law. Its exploration of how intellectual property law might promote innovation in conjunction with national, regional, and global policy goals will also be of interest to practitioners and policymakers.

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) play an increasingly prominent role in addressing global development challenges. United Nations agencies and other organizations are relying on PPPs to improve global health, facilitate access to scientific information, and encourage the diffusion of climate change technologies. For this reason, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development highlights their centrality in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). At the same time, the intellectual property dimensions and implications of these efforts remain under-examined. Through selective case studies, this illuminating work contributes to a better understanding of the relationships between PPPs and intellectual property considered within a global knowledge governance framework, that includes innovation, capacity-building, technological learning, and diffusion. Linking global governance of knowledge via intellectual property to the SDGs, this is the first book to chart the activities of PPPs at this important nexus.