This article examines a sample of German pharmaceutical firms to highlight the strategic reasons why firms participate in various intellectual property (IP) marketplaces, both proprietary (patents and copyrights) and non-proprietary (open source and non-patented technology). The obstacles that...

The quest for technological leadership has caused the widespread use of intellectual property protection (IPP) as an instrument of national technology policies. Even the Agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) can be interpreted as an attempt to hinder the international...

The EU has long viewed economic and institutional convergence as important goals, but the results thus far have been decidedly mixed, and there remain several open questions: How exactly should convergence be defined? How much convergence is necessary? What steps can be taken to improve...

Sugar has always been a highly political and controversial commodity, but never more so than at the present time. The uneasy rivalry between cane and beet sugar, the products of tropical and temperate countries respectively, is giving way to open conflict.

In response to the financial crisis, the ECB has had to adopt new instruments to support the euro area economy and preserve the integrity of the single currency. This has challenged the current framework of the Monetary Dialogue exercise. This paper briefly assesses the implications of enhanced...

This study analyses institutional features national authorities should have in order to apply common policies effectively. It shows that the effective implementation of EU law and policy can be achieved without increased control. The article suggests that benchmarking of the results of the...