Development is a process that creates growth, progress, positive change or the addition of physical, economic, environmental, social and demographic components.
More recently economic growth has been valued, not for its own sake but for facilitating human freedom. Experts like the Nobel prize winning economist Amartya Sen, renowned philosopher Martha Nussbaum have called this the ‘capabilities approach’ to development. Economic growth can provide people with more money as result more freedom to make choices in their lives.
However, that freedom is meaningless without the capabilities to enjoy, good health, Food security, clean environment, quality education, vibrant art and cultures. Intellectual Property in one way or the other is linked to all these essential things.
Intellectual property rights (IPR) are legal entitlements granted by governments within their respective sovereignties that provide patent, trademark, and copyright owners the exclusive right to exploit their intellectual property (IP) for a certain period. The basic rationale for IPR protection is to provide an incentive for innovation by granting IP owners an opportunity to recover their costs of research and development.
As per Article 2 of the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization)– Central Organization for the insurance of Intellectual Property Laws and the master association of the UN, “Intellectual Property will incorporate the rights identifying with abstract, creative and logical works, developments in all fields of human undertaking, logical disclosures, modern structures, trademarks, administration imprints, and business names and assignments, assurance against uncalled for rivalry, and the various rights coming about because of scholarly movement in the mechanical, logical, artistic or logical fields.”
Intellectual Property Rights by itself neither helps nor hinders development necessarily. It is how laws, policies and practices are used and designed in different countries that determine if IP is effective for developmental purposes. Flexibilities in international treaties and agreements can facilitate development because countries can use them in a manner that enables them to pursue their own public policies.
Such flexibilities are inherent in the TRIPs agreement and may concern patents copyrights or other forms of Intellectual Property. Development is at the core of WIPO’s mandate and in 2004 a formal initiative, first advanced by Argentina and Brazil lead into what was called a new and specific “Development Agenda.” At the 2007 General Assembly the Member States of WIPO adopted 45 such recommendations relating to IP and development, grouped into 6 clusters. These recommendations formally constitute the WIPO Development Agenda. They aim to ensure that development considerations form an integral part of the work of all sectors of the organization, in other words, to “mainstream” development. Mainstreaming became to mean that all WIPO activities take account of the different potential impacts of intellectual property on economic, social and cultural development.
The law is made for society, not vice versa. All the laws are made for the benefit and betterment of society. Every law has its positive as well as negative effects on society. Article 31 of the TRIPS Agreement provides for the grant of compulsory licenses, In the interest of public health in case of national emergency Anti-competitive practice. So, in India, the Intellectual Property Right law doesn’t make the market rigid at the same time dynamic in nature.
References,
https://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/trademark/57856/intellectual-property-rights-in-developing-nations
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