To what extent and in what form should the intellectual property rights (IPR) of innovators be protected? Should a company with a large technology lead over its rivals receive the same IPR protection as a company with a more limited advantage? The analysis of these questions necessitates a dynamic framework for the study of the interactions between IPR and competition, in particular to understa...

This paper examines how multinational corporations (MNCs) protect their research and development (R&D) activities that are conducted in weak intellectual property rights (IPR) regime countries. Findings from a small scale survey and three case studies in China show that hierarchical segmentation of R&D process can be an effective way for MNC R&D labs to protect their intellectual property. Furt...

This paper analyzes the main economic issues of intellectual property rights (IPRs) protection in the context of the World Trade Organization (WTO). A retrospective view on the establishment of the TRIPS (traderelated aspects of intellectual property rights) Agreement, a still controversial accomplishment of the Uruguay Round of trade liberalization, is provided. The paper reviews the economic ...

International patent protection was a key issue at the multilateral trade talks sponsored by the World Trade Organization in Cancun in September 2003. Indeed, since the organization was founded almost ten years ago, the international protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) has been a bone of contention between developing and industrialized countries.At that time, developing countries d...

We study the determinants of patent suits and their outcomes over the period 1978-1999 by linking detailed information from the U.S. patent office, the federal court system, and industry sources. The probability of being involved in a suit is very heterogeneous, being much higher for valuable patents and for patents owned by individuals and smaller firms. Thus the patent system generates incent...

Stronger intellectual property rights (IPRs) induce specialization and contribute to economic growth. In the United States, a sweeping pro-patent legal reform in 1982 fostered specialization and enhanced firm performance. Around the world, countries experience faster economic growth when their innovating sectors are characterized by a higher level of specialization. An endogenous growth model w...

Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) have become ubiquitous in the current debate and have emerged as the key issue of global innovation policy. The ‘Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights’ (TRIPS), signed on 1994 as a founding element of the World Trade Organization, represent the most important attempt to establish a global harmonization of Intellectual Property protection. The ...

A new technique of digital watermarking for graylevel images is reported in this paper. Digital watermarking/hiding has emerged as a new area of research in connection to Intellectual Property (IP) protection of images. The redundancy in image representation can be exploited successfully to hide some characteristic information in images, without noticeable distortion. Hidden information after e...

intellectual property law is premised traditionally on the protection of inventions (patent), literary and artistic property (copyright), and signs (trade mark); and sui generis rights, such as design law, stand outside this framework and are constantly questioned and re-shaped the fashion industry is an intellectual property (ip) intensive industry, continually generating and commercially expl...