The Impact and the Implications of TRIPs in a Knowledge-based Global Economy: A Developing Country's Perspective

The chapter discusses, from a developing country's perspective, the impact and implications of the Agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights of the World Trade Organization (WTO). It does so by putting them into the context of relevant trends of globalization and assessing the political and institutional setting within the WTO framework. The paper thereby provides comprehensive background information on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPs) and the resulting international intellectual property regime, including its characteristics, preconditions, the actors and interests involved, and it provides an institutional analysis.