Intellectual Property & Developing Countries: How the TRIPS Agreement Has Affected Developing Countries
The United States introduced the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) with the goal of creating internationally binding minimum standards of protection for intellectual property. Over 100 countries have now agreed, via TRIPS, not to free-ride on the inventive efforts of others. This paper is an analytical study on how the TRIPS agreement has affected growth, trade, and technological and economic development in so-called developing countries. Included is an empirical section regarding patents in the following specific countries: India, China, Brazil and Argentina.
