Intellectual property rights,FDI, and technological development

This paper presents two simultaneous trade-offs faced by a developing country in protecting intellectual property rights (IPRs), namely (1) between attracting foreign direct investment and deterring international technology spillovers, and (2) between encouraging domestic innovation and suppressing technology diffusion. The optimal level of IPR protection depends on the technological capability of the host country. In less developed countries, IPRs should be just strong enough to induce FDI since international technology spillovers are the dominant source of technological development. A stronger level of IPR protection is instead recommended for more advanced emerging economies as a tool to exploit the potential of their domestic innovators. The results cast doubt on the adequacy of globally harmonized IPR standards that do not consider the level of development.     

Foreign direct investment and intellectual property rights: evidence from Hollywood's global distribution of movies and videos

Traditional thinking about intellectual property rights (IPR) suggests that as a country strengthens its IPR standards, firms will move their governance structures away from equity based institutions such as foreign direct investment (FDI) towards more market-based relations such as licensing agreements. This hypothesis is explored by examining the behavior of Hollywood studios in both the feature film and video markets in 40 foreign countries. The analysis reveals that the behavior of Hollywood studios is more complex than this: although moderate IPRs are associated with a high degree of licensing, both high and low standards of IPR encourage more integrated governance structures.     

Self-employment: the role of intellectual property right laws

Little is known about the impact of intellectual property rights (IPRs) on typically imitative self-employment. IPR laws have contrasting dual innovation creation and access effects on self-employment activity. The first effect is positive where strong IPR laws promote innovation and so create new opportunities for self-employment. The second effect is negative where strong IPR laws restrict access to innovation and technology used as inputs to self-employed businesses. Using a 33-country dataset over the period 1995?C2000, we estimate the impact of IPR laws on self-employment, helping to fill the vacuum of empirical evidence that has plagued policy decision making in this area. We find that patent activity has a negative effect on self-employment. However, overall, we find that more extensive and strong IPR laws have a net positive effect on self-employment activity.     

传统知识的知识产权化理论困境与反思

用激励创新、先占原则、劳动理论论证传统知识的知识产权保护难度较大,鼓励商业化、侵占、不当得利、精神权利保护等理论则有一定的说服力,而商标侵权和商标淡化只适用于极少数案例。传统知识虽与知识产权有较大区别,但是它总体上也属于知识产权、财产,现有的财产权理论支持传统知识中性保护而不是强保护。     

Some Bad News Is Good News for Foreign Investors: The Case of Intellectual Property Rights Infringement in China

Despite China's attractiveness to foreign investors, intellectual property rights (IPR) protection in China has not caught up with international standards. This research aims to quantify the relationships between IPR violations, government effectiveness, and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in the context of China. Our econometric modeling and estimation based on provincial level data over 2002‐2012 show that in an early development stage of law and regulatory enforcement, the bad news of a rising number of IPR dispute cases signals the good news of an improvement in law and regulatory enforcement, which encourages IPR owners to raise legal cases. By contrast, in the later development stage, when law and regulatory enforcement has become much more effective, the bad news of a rising number of IPR disputes manifests itself as very bad news. Furthermore, this study confirms that FDI inflows enhance IPR protection through improving government effectiveness, and government effectiveness is one of the key factors promoting FDIs. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The Globalization of Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation in Services

I review the various interrelationships between innovation in service industries and the need for intellectual property rights (IPR) protection. A number of service sectors engage in significant innovation, particularly in information technologies, the internet, digital entertainment, and financial services, suggesting that IPR are of increasing importance in those areas. Other service sectors have not made much use of IPR to date but emerging patterns of innovation indicates that doing so will become a more central element of commercial strategy. A review of available survey evidence supports these views. I discuss how fundamental principles of IPR may be applied to various services and note certain gaps in policy regimes that should be filled in order to meet the needs of these sectors.     

Intellectual Property Rights in China: The Changing Political Economy of Chinese–American Interests

We review the evolution of modern Chinese intellectual property right (IPR) laws and enforcement and explore economic and political forces involved in international conflicts over Chinese IPR protection. Our analysis considers why the US and China moved from conflict to cooperation over intellectual property rights. Structural and institutional aspects of the political economy of IPRs within each country are considered, and data on Chinese‐US trade in intellectual property‐intensive goods are examined. We conclude that although enforcement of IPRs within China continues to be relatively weak, Chinese IPR institutions are converging on those in the OECD nations.     

The North’s intellectual property rights standard for the South?

We build a multi-sectoral North-South trade model to analyze international intellectual property rights (IPR) protection. By comparing the Nash equilibrium IPR protection standard of the South (the developing countries) with that of the North (the developed countries), we find that the former is naturally weaker than the latter. Moreover, we show that both regions can gain from an agreement that requires the South to harmonize its IPR standards with those of the North, and the North to liberalize its traditional goods market. This demonstrates the merits of multi-sectoral negotiations in the GATT/WTO.     

The characteristics of intellectual property rights regimes: How formal and informal institutions affect outward FDI location

This study examines the institutional arrangements that define the characteristics of national legal systems that are used to protect intellectual property (IP) assets embedded in outward FDI. The focus of the study is on how the institutional underpinnings of IPR regimes affect the costs and risk of using legal arenas to enable effective use of IP assets. Following a property rights approach it is postulated that formal and informal institutional arrangements influence how IP regimes affect the transaction costs and risk associated with converting ownership rights over IP into economic rights. Informal institutions are considered to affect the behaviour of agents involved in enforcing legal rights. This behaviour influences how IP law is implemented in legal arenas and thereby impacts on the efficacy of IPR regimes to help secure economic rights from the use of IP assets. Using data on outward FDI from the USA to 42 host countries the results find that the strength of informal institutions connected to the enforcement of IP in a country directly affects outcomes and positively moderates the effect of formal legal aspects of IP law on FDI flows. The results highlight the importance of informal institutional aspects connected to the behaviour of enforcement agents when using national legal systems to protect IP rights in cross-frontier transactions.     

不均质后发大国知识产权保护政策困境

知识产权保护制度并非仅有利而无弊,也决非越严越好,取决于经济、技术发展水平的适度知识产权保护将能够更好地为国家利益服务.中国作为一个后发大国,要求知识产权保护在鼓励自主创新、吸引FDI与促进国际技术扩散中权衡,并且经济、技术发展不平衡的各区域也要求不同的知识产权保护水平.适度知识产权保护如何与目前多边性、双边性国际知识产权协议相适应、又与各区域经济发展水平和技术能力相适应是不均质后发大国知识产权保护政策选择和运行所面临的多重困境.     

Can Intellectual Property Rights Affect Multinational Enterprises’ Entry Modes? The Chilean Case

Abstract

Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) can choose between exporting, introducing foreign direct investment (FDI), and licensing to a domestic firm among other modes of entry to a new market. Yet, this decision may be affected by the strength of intellectual property rights (IPR). Thus, this paper analyzes the effect of stronger IPR on the entry modes chosen by MNEs. We propose a theoretical model that predicts that in the presence of stronger IPR, MNEs would choose licensing instead of FDI as an entry mode. We test the predictions of the model using plant-level data for Chile for the period 2001–2007. We exploit the exogenous reform of IPR in 2005, controlling for the activities of industries where high levels of technology transfer and imitation are important factors. The main results show that stronger IPR change the mode of entry chosen by MNEs. In this case, FDI is replaced by licensing. This is explained by Chile’s high absorptive capacity during this period. We test whether this effect differs across high- and low-tech industries and conclude that the displacement of FDI is less severe in high-tech industries.     

Intellectual property rights protection and total factor productivity

This study examines the role of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection in total factor productivity (TFP) in countries developed at different levels. By undertaking two tests using data of 1,696 observations across 95 countries during 2001–2018 and data of 906 observations covering 87 countries in the 1965–2015 period, we find that the linkage of IPR protection to TFP is negative in least-developed countries while inverted U-shaped in developing and developed countries. In addition, developed countries have the strongest IPR protection and least-developed countries offer the weakest protection, and the optimal IPR protection level for TFP in developed countries is greater than that in developing countries. This study enriches our knowledge of both antecedents of TFP and implications of IPR protection. It provides empirical support for the institution-based view of IPR history and extends the view to the context of developed countries. This study also informs policymakers the proper level of IPR protection if the goal is to promote TFP.     

Do stronger intellectual property rights lead to more R&D-intensive imports?

There is much evidence that intellectual property rights (IPR) protection stimulates trade flows between countries. Yet less is known whether this effect is stronger for technology-intensive products. Using data for 119 countries over the period 1976–2010, this paper shows that the impact of IPR protection on manufacturing imports is significantly stronger for products with greater technology embodiment, as measured by their R&D intensity. An increase in the level of IPR protection leads to 22 per cent faster increase in the value of imports of products at the 90th percentile of R&D intensity than products at the 10th percentile.     

Earnestly Implementing the Campaign and Strengthening the Customs Protection of IPR

The Chinese government is always paying great attention to the Customs IPR Protection .China has established her border measures of intellectual property rights as far as September of 1994.     

Protecting Intellectual Property Rights: The Special Case of China

China is the largest source of counterfeit goods. Both U.S. and European Union customs statistics put the People's Republic of China at the top of the list of pirated product seizures. Along with the remarkable growth in the Chinese economy and exports has come the growth of counterfeit product production and distribution throughout the world. To present a full picture of the many intellectual property rights (IPR) protection problems in China this article reviews Chinese history and traditional attitudes toward individual ownership of IP under Confucianism and communism. Finally, the article presents a view of the current enforcement of IPR rights in China describing the major difficulties encountered by rights owners.     

Global software piracy: Trends and strategic considerations

The design, manufacture, distribution, and sale of software constitutes a rapidly growing and remarkably lucrative global industry. Leaders of most software companies understand that intellectual property rights (IPR) typically are vital to competitive advantage and company success. Theft of intellectual property (IP) in the form of software piracy is brazen, extremely costly, lowers incentives to innovate, and threatens the very existence of some companies. IP theft, therefore, is a daunting challenge for managers of software firms. In this article, we make several contributions that should prove helpful to software designers, managers, responsible users, and broad stakeholders of software innovation and use—that is, almost all of us. In doing so, we provide an overview of international legal, ethical, economic, and systemic considerations, and we share an analysis of the drivers of consumer software piracy. We then discuss strategic considerations and introduce a decision-making typology, which may help legitimate companies to devise strategies and tactics to manage their software IP in the face of widespread piracy.     

Protecting intellectual property: Strategies and recommendations to deter counterfeiting and brand piracy in global markets

Many provisions articulated in the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements are intended to protect intellectual property rights (IPR). The authors contend that despite these provisions IP pi racy, especially counterfeiting, will continue to be rampant in the foreseeable future. The authors discuss the factors that will continue to make IP piracy problematic and offer proactive solutions to companies interested in protecting IPR should they not have the fullest confidence in the enforcement mechanisms provided by the WTO.     

Winning intellectual property rights lawsuits in China

What influences foreign plaintiffs’ likelihood of winning intellectual property rights (IPR) lawsuits in an emerging economy such as China? From an institution-based view, prior scholarly debate presents two competing perspectives on the evolving IPR regime in China, focusing on the incentives of internal development and the pressures of external legitimacy respectively. We integrate these two perspectives to examine the effects of regional research and development (R&D) investment on the likelihood of foreign plaintiffs winning IPR lawsuits. We identify a direct effect reflecting the evolving economic incentives of host regions, and two mediating pathways that correspond to the legal strategies employed by foreign plaintiffs to apply external legitimacy pressure on host region legal institutions. Our analyses of a sample of 1103 IPR disputes between foreign plaintiffs and local defendants in Chinese courts from 2008 to 2017 provide support to our arguments.     

中日韩知识产权贸易竞争力比较研究

随着知识产权强国战略的推进,我国的知识产权贸易取得了很大的进展,但与世界知识产权贸易强国相比依然差异巨大。东北亚是全球经济中举足轻重、发展最快的区域之一,而中日韩三国的高新技术、信息技术等产业较为发达。因此,本文对中国、日本及韩国的知识产权贸易竞争力指数进行对比测算,为我国的知识产权贸易发展提出可行性建议。     

Growth via Intellectual Property Rights Versus Gendered Inequity in Emerging Economies: An Ethical Dilemma for International Business

In this paper, we critique the emergent international normative framework of growth – the knowledge economy. We point out that the standardized character of knowledge economy’s flagship – intellectual property rights (IPRs) – has an adverse impact on women in emerging economies, such as India. Conversely, this impact on women, a significant consumer segment, has a feedback effect in terms of market growth. Conceptually, we analyze the consequences of knowledge economy and standardized IPR through a feminist lens. We extend the analyses by pointing to various contradictions surrounding growth norms; for example, there are inherent contradictions between established “formal” legalistic interpretation of IPR, “soft law” norms of corporate social responsibility, a fluid situation of moral claims of human rights, and different institutional capabilities at the international and domestic level. Consequently, we are able to demonstrate how standard IPR laws fail to deliver equity for all. We argue our case through exploring the growth aspects of the agricultural sector in India and the adverse impact of standard biopatenting on women farmers’ rights (as producers and consumers) and preservation of environment. We suggest that desired gendered equity is better achieved when there is a constellation of actors – private-sector business, the state, and civil-society leaders – working together to ensure a balanced development through tailoring of IPR to local needs.