Intellectual property (IP) has become one of the most influential and controversial issues in today's knowledge-based society. This challenging book exposes the reader to key issues at the heart of the public debate now taking place in the field of IP. It considers IP at the macro level where it affects many issues. These include: international trade policy, ownership of breakthrough technologies, foreign direct investment, innovation climates, public-private partnerships, competition rules and public health where it is strongly embedded in contemporary business decision making. Meir Pugatch has assembled an international and diverse cast of contributing authors, who offer new insights into a broad span of the most pressing IP-related issues. They shed light on the increasing dominance of IP in the design and execution of basic and applied research, the evaluation of intangible assets, and the protection and management of knowledge assets, underscoring its importance in relation to national economic development strategies and business strategies of knowledge-based industries and companies. The Intellectual Property Debate will appeal to scholars, practitioners, and government officials interested in the fields of international trade and intellectual property policy, intellectual property law, technology transfer and valuation, and international business.

This book investigates the realm of intellectual property rights (IPRs) within the context of international political economy. In particular, it examines the extent to which powerful interest groups, such as pharmaceutical multinational companies, influence the political dynamism underlying the field of IPRs. Meir Perez Pugatch argues that a pure economic approach does not provide a sufficient or satisfactory explanation for the creation of intellectual property rights, most notably patents. The author instead suggests that a dynamic approach, based on the international political economy of interest groups and systemic outcomes, provides a better starting point for explaining how the international intellectual property agenda is determined. The book explores the manner in which the R&D-based pharmaceutical industry in Europe organised and operated between 1995 and 1999 in order to secure its interests with regard to the agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPs) of the World Trade Organisation. The International Political Economy of Intellectual Property Rights will be warmly welcomed by scholars, practitioners, and government officials interested in the fields of international trade and intellectual property policy, intellectual property law and international business. The potential readership is as likely to come from developed as from developing countries. The latter may find the process of IP policy making of particular interest and relevance given current international IP developments.