Once the arcane territory of lawyers and trade negotiators, the notion of intellectual property rights is quickly becoming a hotly debated subject. Anti-trade protests as well as extensive press coverage of the implications of patenting genes and software business methods have helped catalyze a healthy public dialogue about the form that these rights will take. There can be little doubt that in a rapidly evolving information economy, a frank discussion of how we access and protect knowledge is crucial to promoting innovation and the public good. However, a less encouraging trend now emerging is a seemingly wholesale distrust of intellectual-property rights.
TRIPs sets global standards for intellectual property protection.
Depending on level of development, countries had between one and ten years to implement agreed minimums of patent, copyright and trademark protection. However, many of the developing countries that are legally bound by TRIPs as of January 2000 have sought to reopen a debate on the agreement and its implementation. But these claims ignore the positive changes that TRIPs has wrought in countries making sincere efforts to meet their obligations. TRIPs has forced many countries to adjust outdated copyright laws to the new realities of an electronic world. That has often netted them greater high tech investment and a more fertile climate for homegrown industry, such as local software design and development.