# Criticisms of intellectual property

The term "intellectual property" Criticism of the term intellectual property ranges from discussing its vagueness and abstract overreach to direct contention to the semantic validity of using words like property and rights in fashions that contradict practice and law. Many detractors think this term specially serves the doctrinal agenda of parties opposing reform in the public interest or otherwise abusing related legislations, and that it disallows intelligent discussion about specific and often unrelated aspects of copyright, patents, trademarks, etc.
Free Software Foundation founder Richard Stallman argues that, although the term intellectual property is in wide use, it should be rejected altogether, because it "systematically distorts and confuses these issues, and its use was and is promoted by those who gain from this confusion". He claims that the term "operates as a catch-all to lump together disparate laws [which] originated separately, evolved differently, cover different activities, have different rules, and raise different public policy issues" and that it creates a "bias" by confusing these monopolies with ownership of limited physical things, likening them to "property rights". Stallman advocates referring to copyrights, patents and trademarks in the singular and warns against abstracting disparate laws into a collective term. He argues that, "to avoid spreading unnecessary bias and confusion, it is best to adopt a firm policy not to speak or even think in terms of 'intellectual property'."
Similarly, economists Boldrin and Levine prefer to use the term "intellectual monopoly" as a more appropriate and clear definition of the concept, which, they argue, is very dissimilar from property rights. They further argued that "stronger patents do little or nothing to encourage innovation", mainly explained by its tendency to create market monopolies, thereby restricting further innovations and technology transfer.
On the assumption that intellectual property rights are actual rights, Stallman says that this claim does not live to the historical intentions behind these laws, which in the case of copyright served as a censorship system, and later on, a regulatory model for the printing press that may have benefited authors incidentally, but never interfered with the freedom of average readers. Still referring to copyright, he cites legal literature such as the United States Constitution and case law to demonstrate that the law is meant to be an optional and experimental bargain to temporarily trade property rights and free speech for public, not private, benefits in the form of increased artistic production and knowledge. He mentions that "if copyright were a natural right nothing could justify terminating this right after a certain period of time".
Law professor, writer and political activist Lawrence Lessig, along with many other copyleft and free software activists, has criticized the implied analogy with physical property (like land or an automobile). They argue such an analogy fails because physical property is generally rivalrous while intellectual works are non-rivalrous (that is, if one makes a copy of a work, the enjoyment of the copy does not prevent enjoyment of the original). Other arguments along these lines claim that unlike the situation with tangible property, there is no natural scarcity of a particular idea or information: once it exists at all, it can be re-used and duplicated indefinitely without such re-use diminishing the original. Stephan Kinsella has objected to intellectual property on the grounds that the word "property" implies scarcity, which may not be applicable to ideas.
Entrepreneur and politician Rickard Falkvinge and hacker Alexandre Oliva have independently compared George Orwell's fictional dialect Newspeak to the terminology used by intellectual property supporters as a linguistic weapon to shape public opinion regarding copyright debate and digital rights management (DRM).

## Alternative terms

In civil law jurisdictions, intellectual property has often been referred to as intellectual rights, traditionally a somewhat broader concept that has included moral rights and other personal protections that cannot be bought or sold. Use of the term intellectual rights has declined since the early 1980s, as use of the term intellectual property has increased.
Alternative terms monopolies on information and intellectual monopoly have emerged among those who argue against the property or intellect or rights assumptions, notably Richard Stallman. The backronyms intellectual protectionism and intellectual poverty, whose initials are also IP, have also found supporters, especially among those who have used the backronym digital restrictions management.
The argument that an intellectual property right should (in the interests of better balancing of relevant private and public interests) be termed an intellectual monopoly privilege (IMP) has been advanced by several academics including Birgitte Andersen and Thomas Alured Faunce.

### Objections to overly broad intellectual property laws

Some critics of intellectual property, such as those in the free culture movement, point at intellectual monopolies as harming health (in the case of pharmaceutical patents), preventing progress, and benefiting concentrated interests to the detriment of the masses, and argue that ever-expansive monopolies in the form of copyright extensions, software patents, and business method patents harm the public interest. More recently scientists and engineers are expressing concern that patent thickets are undermining technological development even in high-tech fields like nanotechnology.
Petra Moser has asserted that historical analysis suggests that intellectual property laws may harm innovation:
   Overall, the weight of the existing historical evidence suggests that patent policies, which grant strong intellectual property rights to early generations of inventors, may discourage innovation. On the contrary, policies that encourage the diffusion of ideas and modify patent laws to facilitate entry and encourage competition may be an effective mechanism to encourage innovation.
In support of that argument, Jörg Baten, Nicola Bianchi and Petra Moser find historical evidence that especially compulsory licensing – which allows governments to license patents without the consent of patent-owners – encouraged invention in Germany in the early 20th century by increasing the threat of competition in fields with low pre-existing levels of competition.
Peter Drahos notes, "Property rights confer authority over resources. When authority is granted to the few over resources on which the many depend, the few gain power over the goals of the many. This has consequences for both political and economic freedom within a society."$^{:13}$
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) recognizes that conflicts may exist between respecting and implementing current intellectual property systems and other human rights. In 2001 the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights issued a document called "Human rights and intellectual property" that argued that intellectual property tends to be governed by economic goals when it should be viewed primarily as a social product; in order to serve human well-being, intellectual property systems must respect and conform to human rights laws. According to the Committee, when systems fail to do so, they risk infringing upon the human right to food and health, and to cultural participation and scientific benefits. In 2004 the General Assembly of WIPO adopted The Geneva Declaration on the Future of the World Intellectual Property Organization which argues that WIPO should "focus more on the needs of developing countries, and to view IP as one of many tools for development—not as an end in itself".
Ethical problems are most pertinent when socially valuable goods like life-saving medicines are given IP protection. While the application of IP rights can allow companies to charge higher than the marginal cost of production in order to recoup the costs of research and development, the price may exclude from the market anyone who cannot afford the cost of the product, in this case a life-saving drug. "An IPR driven regime is therefore not a regime that is conductive to the investment of R&D of products that are socially valuable to predominately poor populations".$^{:1108–9}$
Libertarians have differing views on intellectual property. Stephan Kinsella, an anarcho-capitalist on the right-wing of libertarianism, argues against intellectual property because allowing property rights in ideas and information creates artificial scarcity and infringes on the right to own tangible property. Kinsella uses the following scenario to argue this point:
   [I]magine the time when men lived in caves. One bright guy—let's call him Galt-Magnon—decides to build a log cabin on an open field, near his crops. To be sure, this is a good idea, and others notice it. They naturally imitate Galt-Magnon, and they start building their own cabins. But the first man to invent a house, according to IP advocates, would have a right to prevent others from building houses on their own land, with their own logs, or to charge them a fee if they do build houses. It is plain that the innovator in these examples becomes a partial owner of the tangible property (e.g., land and logs) of others, due not to first occupation and use of that property (for it is already owned), but due to his coming up with an idea. Clearly, this rule flies in the face of the first-user homesteading rule, arbitrarily and groundlessly overriding the very homesteading rule that is at the foundation of all property rights.
Thomas Jefferson once said in a letter to Isaac McPherson on 13 August 1813:
   If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.
In 2005 the Royal Society of Arts launched the Adelphi Charter, aimed at creating an international policy statement to frame how governments should make balanced intellectual property law.
Another aspect of current U.S. Intellectual Property legislation is its focus on individual and joint works; thus, copyright protection can only be obtained in 'original' works of authorship. Critics like Philip Bennet argue that this does not provide adequate protection against cultural appropriation of indigenous knowledge, for which a collective IP regime is needed.
Intellectual property law has been criticized as not recognizing new forms of art such as the remix culture, whose participants often commit what technically constitutes violations of such laws, creation works such as anime music videos and others, or are otherwise subject to unnecessary burdens and limitations which prevent them from fully expressing themselves.$^{:70}$

## Objections to the expansion in nature and scope of intellectual property laws

Other criticism of intellectual property law concerns the expansion of intellectual property, both in duration and in scope.
As scientific knowledge has expanded and allowed new industries to arise in fields such as biotechnology and nanotechnology, originators of technology have sought IP protection for the new technologies. Patents have been granted for living organisms, and in the United States, certain living organisms have been patentable for over a century.
The increase in terms of protection is particularly seen in relation to copyright, which has recently been the subject of serial extensions in the United States and in Europe. With no need for registration or copyright notices, this is thought to have led to an increase in orphan works (copyrighted works for which the copyright owner cannot be contacted), a problem that has been noticed and addressed by governmental bodies around the world.
Also with respect to copyright, the American film industry helped to change the social construct of intellectual property via its trade organization, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). In amicus briefs in important cases, in lobbying before Congress, and in its statements to the public, the MPAA has advocated strong protection of intellectual property rights. In framing its presentations, the association has claimed that people are entitled to the property that is produced by their labor. Additionally Congress's awareness of the position of the United States as the world's largest producer of films has made it convenient to expand the conception of intellectual property. These doctrinal reforms have further strengthened the industry, lending the MPAA even more power and authority.
The growth of the Internet, and particularly distributed search engines like Kazaa and Gnutella, have represented a challenge for copyright policy. The Recording Industry Association of America, in particular, has been on the front lines of the fight against copyright infringement, which the industry calls "piracy". The industry has had victories against some services, including a highly publicized case against the file-sharing company Napster, and some people have been prosecuted for sharing files in violation of copyright. The electronic age has seen an increase in the attempt to use software-based DRM tools to restrict the copying and use of digitally based works. Laws such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act have been enacted that use criminal law to prevent any circumvention of software used to enforce DRM systems. Equivalent provisions, to prevent circumvention of copyright protection have existed in EU for some time, and are being expanded in, for example, Article 6 and 7 the Copyright Directive. Other examples are Article 7 of the Software Directive of 1991 (91/250/EEC), and the Conditional Access Directive of 1998 (98/84/EEC). This can hinder legal uses, affecting public domain works, limitations and exceptions to copyright, or uses allowed by the copyright holder. Some copyleft licenses, like the GNU GPL 3, are designed to counter this. Laws may permit circumvention under specific conditions, such as when it is necessary to achieve interoperability with the circumventor's program, or for accessibility reasons; however, distribution of circumvention tools or instructions may be illegal.
In the context of trademarks, this expansion has been driven by international efforts to harmonise the definition of "trademark", as exemplified by the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights ratified in 1994, which formalized regulations for IP rights that had been handled by common law, or not at all, in member states. Pursuant to TRIPs, any sign which is "capable of distinguishing" the products or services of one business from the products or services of another business is capable of constituting a trademark.

## Use in corporate tax avoidance

   Make no mistake: the headline [tax] rate is not what triggers tax evasion and aggressive tax planning. That comes from schemes that facilitate profit shifting.
Pierre Moscovici European Commissioner for Tax Financial Times, 11 March 2018
Intellectual property has become a core tool in corporate tax planning and tax avoidance. IP is a key component of the leading multinational tax avoidance base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) tools, which the OECD estimates costs $100–240 billion in lost annual tax revenues.
In 2017–2018, both the U.S. and the EU Commission simultaneously decided to depart from the OECD BEPS Project timetable, which was set up in 2013 to combat IP BEPS tax tools like the above, and launch their own anti-IP BEPS tax regimes:
* U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which has several anti-IP BEPS abuse tax regimes, including GILTI tax and the BEAT tax regimes.
* EU Commission 2018 Digital Services Tax, which is less advanced than the U.S. TCJA, but does seek to override IP BEPS tools via a quasi-VAT.
The departure of the U.S. and EU Commission from the OECD BEPS Project process, is attributed to frustrations with the rise in IP as a key BEPS tax tool, creating intangible assets, which are then turned into royalty payment BEPS schemes (double Irish), and/or capital allowance BEPS schemes (capital allowances for intangibles). In contrast, the OECD has spent years developing and advocating intellectual property as a legal and a GAAP accounting concept.

## Gender gap in intellectual property

Women have historically been underrepresented in the creation and ownership of intellectual property covered by intellectual property rights. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, women composed only 16.5% of patent holders even as recently as 2020. This disparity is the result of several factors including systemic bias, sexism and discrimination within the intellectual property space, underrepresentation within STEM, and barriers to access of necessary finance and knowledge in order to obtain intellectual property rights, among other reasons.

## Global IP ratchet and developing countries

The global increase in intellectual property protection is sometimes referred to as a global IP ratchet in which a spiral of bilateral and multilateral agreements result in growing obligations where new agreements never recede from existing standards and very often further heighten them.$^{:7}$
The global IP ratchet has limited the freedom of developing countries to set their own IP standards.$^{:7}$ Developing countries' lack of bargaining power relative to the developed countries driving the global IP ratchet means that developing countries' ability to regulate intellectual property to advance domestic interests is eroding.$^{:6–7}$
* ↑ Mike Masnick (6 March 2008). "If Intellectual Property Is Neither Intellectual, Nor Property, What Is It?". techdirt.com. Techdirt. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
* ↑ Stallman, Richard M. "Did You Say "Intellectual Property"? It's a Seductive Mirage". GNU. Free Software Foundation, Inc. Retrieved 28 March 2008.
* ↑ Stallman, Richard M. "Words to Avoid (or Use with Care) Because They Are Loaded or Confusing". gnu. The GNU Project. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
* ↑ Boldrin, Michele, and David K. Levine. Against intellectual monopoly Archived 6 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
* ↑ "A Model of Discovery" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-08-09. Retrieved 2022-09-01.
* ↑ Stallman, Richard (19 April 2001). "copyright and globalization in the age of computer networks". mit.edu. Archived from the original on 2 March 2015. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
* ↑ Stallman, Richard. "Misinterpreting Copyright". gnu.org. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
* 1 2 "Against perpetual copyright". wiki.lessig.org. Archived from the original on 3 November 2009.
* ↑ Doctorow, Cory (21 February 2008). ""Intellectual property" is a silly euphemism". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 February 2008.
* ↑ Stephan Kinsella (2001) Against Intellectual Property Journal of Libertarian Studies 15(2):1–53
* ↑ Rick Falkvinge (14 July 2013). "Language Matters: Framing The Copyright Monopoly So We Can Keep Our Liberties". torrentfreak.com. Archived from the original on 4 June 2014. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
* ↑ Alexandre Oliva. "1984+30: GNU speech to defeat e-newspeak" (PDF). Retrieved 17 August 2014.
* ↑ Stephan Kinsella for Ludwig von Mises Institute blog, 6 January 2011. Intellectual Poverty
* ↑ Official drm.info site run by the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE)
* ↑ "What is DRM?". defectivebydesign. Defective by Design. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
* ↑ Birgitte Andersen. "'Intellectual Property Right' Or 'Intellectual Monopoly Privilege: Which One Should Patent Analysts Focus On?" CONFERENCIA INTERNACIONAL SOBRE SISTEMAS DE INOVAÇÃO E ESTRATÉGIAS DE DESENVOLVIMENTO PARA O TERCEIRO MILÊNIO. Nov 2003
* ↑ Martin, G; Sorenson, C; Faunce, TA (2007). "Balancing intellectual monopoly privileges and the need for essential medicines". Globalization and Health. 3 (1): 4. doi:10.1186/1744-8603-3-4. PMC 1904211. PMID 17565684. Balancing the need to protect the intellectual property rights (IPRs) (which the third author considers are more accurately described as intellectual monopoly privileges (IMPs)) of pharmaceutical companies, with the need to ensure access to essential medicines in developing countries is one of the most pressing challenges facing international policy makers today.
* ↑ Birgitte Andersen. 'Intellectual Property Right' Or 'Intellectual Monopoly Privilege': Which One Should Patent Analysts Focus On? Conferência Internacional Sobre Sistemas De Inovação E Estratégias De Desenvolvimento Para O Terceiro Milênio. Nov. 2003
* ↑ Martin, G; Sorenson, C; Faunce, TA (2007). "Editorial: Balancing the need to protect the intellectual property rights (IPRs)". Globalization and Health. 3 (1): 4. doi:10.1186/1744-8603-3-4. PMC 1904211. PMID 17565684.
* ↑ On patents – Daniel B. Ravicher (6 August 2008). "Protecting Freedom In The Patent System: The Public Patent Foundation's Mission and Activities". YouTube.
* ↑ Stiglitz, Joseph (13 October 2006). "Authors@Google: Joseph Stiglitz – Making Globalization Work". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-10-28.
* ↑ Stallman's got company: Researcher wants nanotech patent moratorium – Ars Technica
* ↑ Freeze on nanotechnology patents proposed to help grow the sector Archived 2 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine- Wired UK 23 Nov 2012
* ↑ Moser, Petra. 2013. "Patents and Innovation: Evidence from Economic History." Journal of Economic Perspectives, 27(1): 23–44.
* ↑ Baten, Jörg; Bianchi, Nicola; Moser, Petra (2017). "Compulsory licensing and innovation–Historical evidence from German patents after WWI". Journal of Development Economics. 126: 231–242. doi:10.1016/j.jdeveco.2017.01.002.
* ↑ Peter Drahos and John Braithwaite. Information Feudalism: Who Owns the Knowledge Economy?, Earthscan 2002
* ↑ WIPO – World Intellectual Property Organization. "Human Rights and Intellectual Property: An Overview". wipo. Archived from the original on 22 October 2011. Retrieved 25 October 2011.
* ↑ Staff, UN Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights. Geneva, 12–30 November 2001. Human rights and intellectual property
* ↑ Chapman, Audrey R. (December 2002). "The Human Rights Implications of Intellectual Property Protection". Journal of International Economic Law. 5 (4): 861–882. doi:10.1093/jiel/5.4.861.
* ↑ The Geneva Declaration on the Future of the World Intellectual Property Organization
* 1 2 Sonderholm, Jorn (2010). "Ethical Issues Surrounding Intellectual Property Rights". Philosophy Compass. 5 (12): 1107–1115. doi:10.1111/j.1747-9991.2010.00358.x.
* ↑ D'Amato, David. "Libertarian Views of Intellectual Property: Rothbard, Tucker, Spooner, and Rand". Libertarianism.org. Cato Institute. Retrieved 2 January 2023.
* ↑ Stephan Kinsella, "What It Means To Be an Anarcho-Capitalist", "LewRockwell.com", published 2004-01-20, archived 15 April 2018. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
* ↑ N. Stephan Kinsella, Against Intellectual property (2008), p. 44.
* ↑ Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Isaac McPherson (August 13, 1813)
* ↑ Boyle, James (14 October 2005). "Protecting the public domain". The Guardian.
* ↑ Bennet, Philip (2009). "Native Americans and Intellectual Property: the Necessity of Implementing Collective Ideals into Current United States Intellectual Property Laws". SSRN. doi:10.2139/ssrn.1498783. SSRN 1498783. Archived from the original on Nov 26, 2023.
* ↑ Dariusz Jemielniak; Aleksandra Przegalinska (18 February 2020). Collaborative Society. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-35645-9.
* ↑ Fiesler, Casey; Feuston, Jessica L.; Bruckman, Amy S. (28 February 2015). "Understanding Copyright Law in Online Creative Communities". Proceedings of the 18th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing. CSCW '15. Vancouver, BC, Canada: Association for Computing Machinery. pp. 116–129. doi:10.1145/2675133.2675234. ISBN 978-1-4503-2922-4. S2CID 28669082.
* ↑ Freund, Katharina (1 August 2016). ""Fair use is legal use": Copyright negotiations and strategies in the fan-vidding community". New Media & Society. 18 (7): 1347–1363. doi:10.1177/1461444814555952. ISSN 1461-4448. S2CID 11258627.
* ↑ Allen, Peter James (24 August 2008). "Rip, mix, burn ... sue ... ad infinitum: The effects of deterrence vs voluntary cooperation on non-commercial online copyright infringing behaviour". First Monday. doi:10.5210/fm.v13i9.2073. ISSN 1396-0466.
* ↑ Council for Responsible Genetics, "DNA Patents Create Monopolies on Living Organisms". Retrieved 2008.12.18.
* ↑ Plant Patents USPTO.gov
* ↑ E.g., the U.S. Copyright Term Extension Act, Pub.L. 105–298.
* ↑ Mark Helprin, Op-ed: A Great Idea Lives Forever. Shouldn't Its Copyright? The New York Times, 20 May 2007.
* ↑ Eldred v. Ashcroft Eldred v. Ashcroft, 537 U. S. 186 (2003)
* ↑ Masnick, Mike (21 May 2007). "Arguing For Infinite Copyright... Using Copied Ideas And A Near Total Misunderstanding Of Property". techdirt. Archived from the original on 7 September 2009.
* ↑ Library of Congress Copyright Office Docket No. 2012–12 Orphan Works and Mass Digitization Federal Register, Vol. 77, No. 204. Monday, 22 October 2012. Notices. PP 64555–64561; see p 64555 first column for international efforts and 3rd column for description of the problem.
* ↑ Dennis Wharton, "MPAA's Rebel With Cause Fights for Copyright Coin", Variety (3 August 1992), Vol. 348, No. 2, p. 18.
* ↑ William W. Fisher III, The Growth of Intellectual Property:A History of the Ownership of Ideas in the United States Eigentumskulturen im Vergleich (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1999)
* ↑ Smith, Brett (2007–2010). "A Quick Guide to GPLv3". gnu. Free Software Foundation. Retrieved 15 February 2013.
* ↑ Katherine Beckman and Christa Pletcher (2009) Expanding Global Trademark Regulation Wake Forest Intellectual Property Law Journal 10(2): 215–239
* ↑ Toplensky, Rochelle (11 March 2018). "Multinationals pay lower taxes than a decade ago". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 2022-12-10.
* ↑ "Intellectual Property and Tax Avoidance in Ireland". fordhamiplj. Fordham Intellectual Property, Media & Entertainment Law Journal. 30 August 2016. Archived from the original on 2 May 2019.
* ↑ Intellectual property (IP) has become the leading tax-avoidance vehicle."Intellectual Property Law Solutions to Tax Avoidance" (PDF). uclalawreview. UCLA Law Review. 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 March 2015.
* ↑ "Patently problematic". The Economist. August 2015.
* ↑ "Intellectual Property Tax Planning in the light of Base Erosion and Profit Shifting". University of Tilburg. June 2017.
* ↑ "Profit Shifting and "Aggressive" Tax Planning by Multinational Firms" (PDF). Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW). October 2013. p. 3.
* 1 2 "BEPS Project Background Brief" (PDF). OECD. January 2017.
* ↑ "A Hybrid Approach: The Treatment of Foreign Profits under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act". Tax Foundation. 3 May 2018.
* ↑ "Trump's US tax reform a significant challenge for Ireland". The Irish Times. 30 November 2017.
* ↑ "Donald Trump singles out Ireland in tax speech". The Irish Times. 29 November 2017.
* ↑ "Why Ireland faces a fight on the corporate tax front". The Irish Times. 14 March 2018.
* ↑ "EU digital levy could hit tech FDI and tax revenue here". Irish Independent. 21 March 2018.
* ↑ "What the EU's new taxes on the tech giants mean – and how they would hurt Ireland". thejournal.ie. 24 March 2018.
* ↑ "New UN tax handbook: Lower-income countries vs OECD BEPS failure". Tax Justice Network. 11 September 2017.
* ↑ WIPO, World Intellectual Property Organization (8 March 2021). "Gender Equality, Diversity and Intellectual Property". Retrieved 7 June 2021.
* ↑ WIPO, World Intellectual Property Organization (21 May 2021). "Closing the Gender Gap in IP". Retrieved 7 June 2021.
* 1 2 3 Cheng, Wenting (2023). China in Global Governance of Intellectual Property: Implications for Global Distributive Justice. Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies series. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-3-031-24369-1.