Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Making of a Regime: United States Foreign Economic Policy, Intellectual Property Rights and Economic Development

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For nearly fifteen years the United States led the way in advocating a global regime for the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR). With the signing of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in December, 1995, that goal was achieved. The Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property, Including Trade in Counterfeit Goods commits all signatory nations to the strong Western-style IPR system that the United States has advocated. However the United States' interest in securing a strong IPR regime is a very recent phenomena. Initial research suggests that early in its infancy, the United States did not favor strong IPR, particularly in terms of protecting foreign intellectual property from duplication in the US. This Doctoral Dissertation Research grant allows an analysis of IPR as a global policy. The two specific questions addressed are: 1) how did the United States' position on IPR evolve from one of advocating weak IPR protection to one of favoring strong global protection of IPR? 2) What is the potential impact of imposing such a strong global IPR regime on developing countries, given the United States' early experience with the IPR issue? To this end, the research answers how the global IPR issue evolved, who were the primary actors in forming the policy, and what are the potential effects of the new policy. Both qualitative and quantitative empirical methods of analysis are employed to address these questions. Qualitative research is used to trace the US historical experience with IPR, demonstrating the pivotal role that domestic institutions such as the Congress and interest groups played in elevating IPR to a global issue. Quantitative research is utilized to test the effects of IPR on the development process which the US and other countries have argued will be enhanced by following a Western-style IPR system. This Doctoral Dissertation Research project promises to enhance substantially our understanding of this interesting and important problem.