Essays on the protection of intellectual property rights and North-South technology transfer.

One of the subjects under discussion at the Uruguay Round for the last 4 years has been the introduction of strengthened protection of intellectual property rights (IPR's) in underdeveloped countries. This issue has polarized countries into the rich, Northern countries who undertake R&D and stand to lose from lack of enforcement of IPR's, and Southern countries which are more concerned with acquiring goods at lower prices than with encouraging R&D. Recent literature has also argued that there are few incentives for Southern countries to enforce protection of IPR's.