The globalization of private knowledge goods and the privatization of global public goods

Introduction and conceptual framework International public goods and intellectual property rights Technology transfer after the TRIPS agreement Re-regulating the global marketplace to protect knowledge as a private good Legal and organizational impediments to the creation and diffusion of knowledge goods Preserving temporary competitive advantages with international intellectual property standards Instability and loss of balance in developed intellectual property regimes Exporting a dysfunctional system to the rest of the world? Impact of intellectual property standards on the reserved welfare powers of WTO members Balancing public and private interests in an emerging transnational system of innovation Developing countries as defenders of the competitive ethos A moratorium on stronger international intellectual property standards An institutional infrastructure for reconciling existing IPRs with national and regional systems of innovation Maintaining the supply of knowledge as a global public good Dynamic properties of knowledge as a global public good Nurturing a transnational system of innovation 336Global trade and investment have become increasingly liberalized in recent decades. This liberalization has lately been accompanied by substantive new requirements for strong minimum standards of intellectual property (IP) protection, which moves the world economy toward harmonized private rights in knowledge goods. While this trend may have beneficial impacts in terms of innovation and technology diffusion, such impacts would not be evenly distributed across countries. Deep questions also arise about whether such globalization of rights to information will raise roadblocks to the national and international provision of such public goods as environmental protection, public health, education, and scientific advance. This chapter argues that the globalized IP regime will strongly affect prospects for technology transfer and competition in developing countries. In turn, these nations must determine how to implement such standards in a pro-competitive manner and how to foster innovation and competition in their own markets. Developing countries may need to take the lead in policy experimentation and IP innovation in order to offset overly protectionist tendencies in the rich countries and to maintain the supply of global public goods in an emerging transnational system of innovation.

Duke Scholars

Author Jerome H. Reichman School of Law