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Intellectual Property Rights

Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights - Who Benefits?

April 26 is World Intellectual Property Day.
- Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) were created to encourage innovation, promote use of new knowledge and disseminate new knowledge to others. Does the current IPR regime achieves these objectives? Who benefits? What are some key challenges developing countries are facing as they seek to implement IPR? Who drives the agenda?
- This feature examines these questions from a variety of angles: food security, knowledge economy, trade, culture, ICT, NGOs, Indigenous people and knowledge. Read also Dr. R.A. Mashelkar's perspective on the importance of IPR for development and how India went about raising IPR awareness.

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Food Security
	Do intellectual property rights pose a threat to African food security? More

Knowledge Economy
	What are the key challenges of implementing IPR in an emerging market? A Bulgarian perspective. More

Trade
	Intellectual property rights on the multilateral trade agenda –what are the outstanding issues? More

Gender and Development
	What IPR protections does traditional cultural practice have in the developing world? More

ICT for Development
	How does IPR influence the use of information technologies in development? More

NGO
	The role of NGOs in intellectual property dialogue. More

Indigenous Peoples
	The importance of IPR for indigenous peoples.More

Indigenous Knowledge
	Protecting indigenous knowledge and possible methods of sharing benefits with local communities More

DG Expert Perspective: Raising IPR awareness in India

Dr. R.A. Mashelkar

Dr. Mashelkar
provides his perspective on why IPR is important for developing countries and an overview of how India, in particular the Council of Scientific and industrial Research, went about creating “an environment for appreciation, nurturing an utilization of intellectual property” in the country. More

See also

		IPR defined –what are copyrights, patents and trademarks?

		Statement by the WIPO Director General for World IPR Day

		The donor community’s IPR activities
		Books on IPR in development
		More DG resources on IPR

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