Patent thickets are unintentionally dense webs of overlapping intellectual property rights owned by different companies that can retard progress. This article begins with a review of existing research on patent thickets, focusing in particular on the problem of patent thickets in nanotechnology, or nanothickets. After presenting visual evidence of the presence of nanothickets using a network an...

This paper studies the regional differences of intellectual property rights (IPRs), revealing IPRs protection’s regional difference in China. By introducing “implementation effect” to adjust G-P Index, it can be realized that China’s IPRs protection have been steadily improved, and there has been obvious and steady differences in IPRs. Developed districts have higher protection level of IPRs th...

“Intellectual property protection is important, but, almost of necessity, imperfect. It is harder and therefore more costly to define than conventional property, and by the same token, it is costlier to enforce intellectual property rights. In some cases, the inventor gets more than his marginal contribution, in other cases, less. Intellectual property protection strengthens dynamic efficiency ...

The paper divides the evolution of protection for intellectual property into three periods; the territorial, international and global periods. The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) represents the beginning of the global period. Its consequences are briefly discussed. Developing countries, the paper suggests, have little to gain from TRIPS. This raises th...

The purpose of the seminar was to discuss matters related to intellectual property rights (IPRs) and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (the TRIPS Agreement) including recent developments in the area with particular emphasis on their implications for sustainable development. During the seminar four experts on IPR issues gave short presentations in which they ...

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After the Agreement on the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) came into operation in 1995 developing countries have found themselves in a process of continual negotiation over intellectual property rights and access to medicines. These negotiations have taken place in the World Trade Organization and in the context of free trade agreements. The paper suggests that the...