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16 Global Intellectual Property Rights Issues in Perspective: A Concluding Panel Discussion
Pages 360-383

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From page 360...
... As a result, considerable international tension and animosity exist between most developing countries and many developed countries notably the United States over bilateral trade law actions and the GATT negotiat~ons. The traditional Paris, Berne, and other international conventions are functioning quite well to achieve {PR compliance between developed countries.
From page 361...
... , and those newly industrialized countries (NICS) that are regarded as being on the threshold of global technological competitiveness (2c)
From page 362...
... Transition to newly India, Thailand, Mexico industrialized country Hong Kong Singapore, Taiwan, Brazil South Korea Republic of South Africa the same classifications as in Table 16-1, as well as categories representing the recently industrialized Mediterranean countries (e.g., Spain) and mature, developed countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
From page 363...
... Some of the advanced NICS, such as South Korea, Taiwan, and Brazil, do export some technology, but the poorer countries have no such export capability. This has implications for the way traditional intellectual property conventions have functioned.
From page 364...
... 364 ~o o o C~ s~ o Ct st Ct o 1 E~ E~ o o ~i V o ^3 ~ .
From page 365...
... 365 o oo .
From page 366...
... Very few policymakers in developing countries are asking whether {PRS actually stimulate domestic invention and capacity development or whether they improve the ability of developing countries to buy technology on better terms. There is also a related question about whether the willingness of foreign technology suppliers to provide technology to developing countries is improved by stronger IPRS.
From page 367...
... The patent protection of parent material and genes in plants as well as, to some degree, the finished varieties of crops- could block public disclosure of research results and the free flow of genetic resources. Plant breeders' rights, the system used in the United States to protect plant varieties, have by and large avoided this problem.
From page 368...
... Three reasons are discussed for suspecting that the near-term effects of an IPR agreement may be quite modest, particularly with respect to foreign investment and foreign investment flows among industrialized nations. Those three reasons are followed by a more speculative discussion of an additional issue the likely welfare consequences for the United States of stronger domestic and international property rights protection.
From page 369...
... This evidence suggests that patent protection and other forms of formal intellectual property protection are most important in regard to pharmaceutical and chemical-related technologies. One implication of this finding is that some of the "side payments" necessary to reach the Uruguay Round trade agreement are likely to be made by U.S.
From page 370...
... A second reason to expect that the near-term effects of an IPR agreement may be quite modest is the likelihood that a Uruguay Round TRIPS settlement will have fairly modest effects on direct foreign investment, par ticularly among industrialized economies. Although it is possible to argue that stronger protection for patents and copyrights will strengthen international markets for technologies, reduce frictions and transaction costs, and so on, these markets will still be afflicted with a number of problems that stem from fundamental uncertainty about the characteristics of new technologies themselves.
From page 371...
... Some shift may occur in the mix of destinations for certain types of foreign investment, along the lines suggested in Chapter 5, but I think that on the whole the effect will be modest. A final reason to think that a Uruguay Round agreement covering {PRS may have modest effects on direct foreign investment is the fact that these effects will be heavily influenced by the results of other negotiating groups on closely related issues, particularly those affecting direct foreign investment.
From page 372...
... For all of these reasons, the effects on direct foreign investment of an IPR agreement in the Uruguay Round of the GATT are likely to be modest. Moreover, the effects of an IPR agreement will be heavily influenced by Uruguay Round agreements on other issues.
From page 373...
... At the same time, the useful life of products that embody a particular technology is getting shorter and shorter. The result is a need to establish and maintain some kind of global market position to sustain the pace of development by earning sufficient economic returns to keep the game going.
From page 374...
... These constraints mean that major developers of new high-tech products have to move fast to market, and attain global scale and position, just to have a chance of recouping and continuing their accelerating investments. The very same constraints push toward increased cooperative activity to defray the accelerating costs of new technology development and of global market positioning.
From page 375...
... Skilled personnel, in particular, leave companies; they go from one to another. Short-term capital market constraints in the United States often force new companies small companies with good ideas to license technology quickly.
From page 376...
... industries have eroded in international markets, so too has their relative ability to appropriate know-how in ways other than through strict intellectual property protection. What is left to protect information, software, ideas really can be accomplished only through a strict IPR regime.
From page 377...
... The state of New Jersey has placed historic markers along the road proclaiming that, from this site, the first signals were transmitted to a satellite; the first signals from outer space were received and radio astronomy was born in 1927. The discovery of radiation from the "big bang" won a Nobel Prize for two of my colleagues at Bell Labs.
From page 378...
... In fact, the chief executive officer of that company reportedly has said that Bell Labs was "AT&T'S expensive hobby. You do not need this to succeed." I think about this and how they get the benefits of AT&T'S research without investing in it and about what would be fair.
From page 379...
... AT&T Bell Labs used to be a unique place; we were alone in the world. Now technology is strewn about the world, and competence is everywhere.
From page 380...
... As a result, the incentives and need for, and the purposes of, intellectual property protection are going to change as technology changes, as indigenous capabilities change, and as growth in competence continues to spread around the world. While unauthorized access to knowledge will continue to grow, the motivations of many countries, particularly the NICS, regarding intellectual property will change.
From page 381...
... I want to put this in a slightly different context, however; that is, international trade issues, which were seen in the past as matters of export subsidies and of tariffs and duties of various kinds, now go much deeper into society. International trade issues now involve cultural issues, different forms of economic structure and tradition, and even questions about the national support of R&D, which is in effect a kind
From page 382...
... In the effort to get broader participation in international agreements, multilateral organizations inevitably end up being slow and unwieldy, which has the effect of reducing the power and influence of the United States in that context. We will continue to use the United Nations because we have no choice.
From page 383...
... In Science and Technology: Lessons for Developing Economies, Robert Evenson and Gustav Ranis, eds. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press.


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