ABSTRACT
During the 1990s, the increase in research and development (R&D) costs, the shortening of the life-cycle of products, difficulties of appropriating R&D results, particularly in the field of easy-to-copy new technologies (such as computer programs), and the shift toward a global, knowledge-based economy, prompted a far-reaching reform of the intellectual property system (Correa 1994; David 1993). The concerted action of industrialised countries’ governments and some of their more powerful industries, such as pharmaceuticals, software and phonograms (Sell 1995; Ryan 1998), succeeded in strengthening and extending the standards for the protection of intellectual property rights (IPRs) worldwide. A major outcome of this process was the adoption, in 1994, of the agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (‘TRIPS agreement’), as one of the components of the multilateral trade system managed by the World Trade Organization (Correa 2000b).
