scholarly journals Hedging Bets with BITS

2021 ◽  
pp. 157-175
Author(s):  
Rochelle C Dreyfuss

This chapter argues that bilateral investment treaties (BITS) and free trade agreements (FTAs) erect a high hedge around intellectual property rights, protecting them from the impact of state regulation. Two investor-state dispute settlements (ISDS) involving IP have been resolved by final award. In both cases, the state prevailed, suggesting that the hedge may not be as impenetrable as had originally been feared. However, the chapter contends that this view is mistaken. While the awards in the decided disputes may close the door on specific contentions, they invite further challenges and maintain the heavy shadow that the hedge provided by ISDS casts on state action. In order to trim that hedge, it will be necessary for the drafters of investment obligations and the tribunals that hear ISDS disputes to take into account the intangibility of IP rights in determining when IP is sufficiently localized in a host state that it should be considered protectable by that state's investment obligations. The chapter then explores ways to trim ISDS, including the possibility of using ISDS as a mechanism for building counter-norms—hedges that protect the public and its regulatory interest.

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 407-442
Author(s):  
Nadia Naim

AbstractThe purpose of this article is to assess how Islamic finance can act as a vehicle to enhance the current intellectual property rights regime in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Islamic finance has developed within the constraints of sharia law and has been a growth sector for the GCC. This article will identify the main principles of Islamic finance that contribute to the success of Islamic finance, which can enhance intellectual property protection in the GCC. The main sharia-compliant areas to be considered are musharaka, mudaraba, murabaha, takaful, istisna, ijara, salam and sukuk. The article will outline the founding principles of Islamic finance, the governance of sharia boards, development of Islamic finance in the individual GCC states, different frameworks of sharia-compliant investment products and the impact of intellectual property rights on the varying Islamic finance investment tools. Furthermore, the article will discuss an integrated approach to intellectual property rights which learns lessons from the Islamic finance sector in relation to infrastructure, regulation and sharia compliance. The lessons learnt from Islamic finance will inform the overall framework of recommendations for an Islamic intellectual property model. The use of Islamic finance as a vehicle to promote better intellectual property rights in terms of defining a new intellectual property approach is novel. It is aimed at spearheading further research in this area, and it will form a part of the overall integrated approach proposals to intellectual property protection in the GCC and beyond.


2014 ◽  
Vol 05 (03) ◽  
pp. 1440009
Author(s):  
Sasatra Sudsawasd ◽  
Santi Chaisrisawatsuk

Using panel data for 57 countries over the period of 1995–2012, this paper investigates the impact of intellectual property rights (IPR) processes on productivity growth. The IPR processes are decomposed into three stages — innovation process, commercialization process, and protection process. The paper finds that better IPR protection is directly associated with productivity improvements only in developed economies. In addition, the contribution of IPR processes on growth through foreign direct investment (FDI) appears to be quite limited. Only inward FDI in developed countries which creates better innovative capability leads to higher growth. In connection with outward FDI, only the increase in IPR protection and commercialization are proven to improve productivity in the case of developing countries, particularly when the country acts as the investing country.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Glauco De Vita ◽  
Constantinos Alexiou ◽  
Emmanouil Trachanas ◽  
Yun Luo

PurposeDespite decades of research, the relationship between intellectual property rights (IPRs) and foreign direct investment (FDI) remains ambiguous. Using a recently developed patent enforcement index (along with a broader IPR index) and a large sectoral country-to-country FDI dataset, the authors revisit the FDI-IPR relationship by testing the impact of IPRs on UK and US outward FDI (OFDI) flows as well as earnings from outward FDI (EOFDI).Design/methodology/approachThe authors use disaggregated data for up to 9 distinct sectors of economic activity from both the US and UK for OFDI flows and EOFDI, for a panel of up to 42 developed and developing countries over sample periods from 1998 to 2015. The authors employ a panel fixed effects (FE) approach that allows exploiting the longitudinal properties of the data using Driscoll and Kraay's (1998) nonparametric covariance matrix estimator.FindingsThe authors do not find any consistent evidence in support of the hypothesis that countries' strength of IPR protection or enforcement affects inward FDI, or that sector of investment matters. The results prove robust to sensitivity checks that include an alternative broader measure of IPR strength, analyses across sub-samples disaggregated according to the strength of countries' IPRs as well as developing vs developed economies and an extended specification accounting for dynamic effects of the response of FDI to both previous investment levels and IPR (patent) protection.Originality/valueThe authors make use of the largest most granular sectoral country-to-country FDI dataset employed to date in the analysis of the FDI-IPR nexus with disaggregated data for OFDI and EOFDI across up to 9 distinct sectors of economic activity from both the US and UK The authors employ a more sophisticated measure of IPR strength, the patent index proposed by Papageorgiadis et al. (2014), which places emphasis on the effectiveness of enforcement practices as perceived by managers, together with the overall administrative effectiveness and efficiency of the national patent system.


LAW REVIEW ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rohit P Singh ◽  
Shiv Kumar Tripathi

In view of the rapid pace of technological, scientific and medical innovations in India and abroad, the intellectual property rights i.e., copyright, patent and other neighboring rights, have been recognized in Indian and foreign jurisdiction. Moreover, its scope and content have expanded pursuant to statutory amendments over the years. Growing recognisiont, expansion and protection of IPRs needs to harmonised with the public interest. Within this backdrop, copyright law, patent law etc. have made elaborate provisions and endeavours have also been made at international level to strike a balance between protection of individual’s IPRS and social interest. The present article tries to examine the contours of protection of IPRS at national and international levels with special reference to copyright law.


2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (06) ◽  
pp. 1950059
Author(s):  
QINGFENG WANG ◽  
XU SUN

As Intellectual Property (IP) protection can nurture innovation, and since innovation is one of the critical sources of economic growth, it has become especially important since China surpassed a certain economic development stage, because China now has a growing number of its own innovations which need to be protected. This paper describes the construction of a new research model with which to explore and examine the impact of potential factors on attitudes towards Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in China in the context of the creative design industry. The findings of a quantitative study of Chinese design business owners reveal the significant roles of Confucianism, perceived economic loss and perceived effectiveness of IPR law enforcement in shaping their attitudes towards IPR. Our findings support the idea that promoting Confucianism can help to develop an internalised respect for IPR, while sizable penalties for IPR infringement can enhance the effectiveness of IPR protection.


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