This paper engages with the literature on intellectual property rights by adopting an evolutionary economist’s approach to the study of technologies.

Three important aspects of the Canadian pharmaceutical industry-viz. compulsory licence, price control on patented drugs and the R&D scenario. Unlike other developed countries, which have adopted the route of providing higher Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) protection to promote the growth of...

India's patent reforms represent a shift in India's policy from one of enormous opposition to revising patent laws according to the WTO, to one of compliance with many aspects of TRIPs (Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights) Agreement. Industry and civil society had a strong interest in...

This article summarizes the law and economics theory of IPRs, while at the same time suggests hints for further research. The standard literature on IPRs generally relies on the thesis of the incentive to create new ideas. Although this argument remains valid in the general case, in several...

Intellectual property rights-–copyrights, trademarks, patents, trade secrets, and related rights-–have become increasingly important with the advent of increased international trade, global and knowledge-based economy and fast developing technology. A strong intellectual property rights...

We examine the impact of intellectual property rights (IPRs) on US exports of biological, medicinal, botanical, and pharmaceutical products. We find that: (1) strong IPRs enhance monopoly power of US exports in countries with weak imitative abilities; and (2) strong IPRs expand markets for US...

The role of defense in national innovation systems is highly topical, because of the complexity of defense systems and the desire to get value-for-money from R&D investment, especially through the commercialization of defense-funded technology. In practice, external transfer has proved to be a...

We generalize an earlier model of international vertical pricing to explain key features of parallel imports, or unauthorized trade in legitimate goods. When a manufacturer (or trademark owner) sells its product through an independent agent in one country, the agent may find it profitable to...

We review the role of R&D in endogenous growth theory, and describe extant empirical research – macro and micro – bearing on R&D as an engine of growth. Taking R&D to be key, while recognizing the significance of economic incentives, emphasizes knowledge as an economic object and, more...