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"Introduction" [2008] ELECD 207; in Malbon, Justin; Lawson, Charles (eds), "Interpreting and Implementing the TRIPS Agreement" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2008)

Book Title: Interpreting and Implementing the TRIPS Agreement

Editor(s): Malbon, Justin; Lawson, Charles

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847201447

Section: 1

Section Title: Introduction

Number of pages: 5

Extract:

1. Introduction
The European Patent Office recently released its report Scenarios for the
Future addressing how intellectual property regimes might evolve by 2025
(European Patent Office 2007). While there seems little doubt that intellec-
tual property is now entrenched as a policy instrument intended to promote
creativity, invention and innovations that contribute to economic develop-
ment, the form and content of how this should be attained remains con-
tested. This edited collection enjoins the global intellectual property
debate by offering a range of perspectives about how the World Trade
Organization's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual
Property Rights (TRIPS) is and should be interpreted and implemented.
Like the Scenarios for the Future report, the collection takes a broader view
of TRIPS' interpretation, recognising that to attain legitimacy and public
trust and support TRIPS implementation must accommodate a broad spec-
trum of views and deliver real and meaningful economic developments to a
wider global community.
According to the European Patent Office Report, the patent system must
accommodate multiple players and stakeholders from different cultures
and `with different worldviews and aspirations who are working towards
different goals within a global environment' (European Patent Office 2007,
p. 11). The challenge, the Report notes, is to find ways of meeting the
specific developmental requirements of disparate nations at a global level,
`because a system that blocks the access of poor people to essential drugs
or food will eventually lose its credibility' (European Patent Office 2007,
p. 11). The Report also asks whether ...