Intellectual property rights (IPR) of computer software is the right to assign the software to its creator, not limited to time and space, and non-transferable. Proving IPR of the creators of computer software requires a rigorous review of the ways in which these rights may be violated. The present study was conducted by comparing two populations in Iran with the aim of identifying the level of...

This paper establishes a nexus between the established fields of constitutional political economy and macroeconomic capital theory. Constitutional political economy explores how legal and institutional structures emerge over time. The evolution of property rights has always been a central focus of this line of inquiry. Time preference is one of the most basic economic concepts. Theories of inte...

In developing countries, the extent to which women possess property rights is shaped in large part by transfers received at the time of marriage. Focusing on dowry, we develop a simple model of the marriage market with intrahousehold bargaining to understand the incentives for brides’ parents to allocate the rights over the dowry between their daughter and her groom. In doing so, we clarify and...

Rights over land and other natural resources play a fundamental role in human society. The distribution of wealth and poverty is a reflection of underlying property rights. But reforming property rights to give poor women and men greater access to and greater control over resources is not an easy task. This chapter explains why property rights are important for poverty reduction, describes the ...

The high profile investment claims filed by Philip Morris challenging Uruguayan and Australian measures that restrict advertising and logos on tobacco packaging awakened the public health community to the existence and potential detrimental impact of international investment agreements (IIAs). More recently, Eli Lilly challenged Canada's invalidation of a pharmaceutical patent under an IIA. All...

Biological innovations in agriculture did not enjoy protection by formal intellectual property rights (IPRs) for a long time, but the recent trend has been one of considerable broadening and strengthening of these rights. We document the nature of these IPRs and their evolution, and provide an assessment of their impacts on innovation. We integrate elements of the institutional history of plant...

We consider a dynamic model of an economy where productive capital can be owned only by the members of an elite oligarchy, because property rights and contracts are effectively enforced only by their private political networks. This private protection entails a degree of ownership security that is good but not perfect. We find that the performance of the economy will depend critically on oligar...

A new and comprehensive treaty on intellectual property rights was established in 1994, within the framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO). It is called the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights-the TRIPS agreement for short. It requires all WTO member countries to adopt in their laws minimum standards of protection for patents, trademarks, copyrights and ot...

Intellectual property rights are essential in today’s technology-driven age. Building a strategic IP portfolio is economically important from both an offensive and defensive standpoint. Applicable areas in Nanotechnology to which intellectual property rights can apply are presented. Some challenging issues surrounding the acquisition of IP rights in Nanotechnology are also presented. The Import...