This Chapter identifies and describes the principal features of the international arrangements for protecting intellectual property rights (IPRs) in countries other than those of their originator or creator. In the case of national or regional IP laws, these connections are readily identifiable. At the international level, however, they are less obvious, and many gaps and inconsistencies arise. Nonetheless, the Chapter argues that a ‘system’ for the international recognition and protection of IPRs is still clearly discernible and can be described. It begins with a brief account of the objectives of that system and its principal organizing principles, and then moves to consider its principal actors and the means by which its protection is achieved, namely through a series of international conventions or treaties of varying content and particularity. The Chapter concludes by noting a number of pressures, both internal and external, to which the system thus comprised is subject.
Intellectual Property and Licensing Strategies in Open Collaborative Innovation