Indicators of the relative importance of IPRs in developing countries

This paper reviews briefly the economic case for uniform and strong intellectual property rights (IPRs) in developing countries and to throw some empirical light on the potential impact of strengthening IPRs and applying them uniformly to all countries (as envisaged by the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement). It argues that countries at different levels of industrial and technological development face very different economic costs and benefits from stronger IPRs. It illustrates technological differences with the help of country classifications using various measures of domestic innovation and technology imports, both of which are expected to respond to stricter IPRs. The data can be used to examine the technological implications of stricter IPRs. The paper does not, however, deal with such IPR issues as the cost of medicines, agricultural inputs, bio-diversity or genetic materials. Nor does it try to measure the strength of IPR regimes in different countries or quantify the general impact of IPRs on development. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.