In many developed countries following the Second World War the overriding principle was to have an industrial policy, usually heavily reliant on the public sector in order to encourage the development of ‘national champions’, companies with enough expertise and scale to be able to compete well on the international markets. These values had been reflected in the protectionist measures which some countries had employed, such as
The WTO’s Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), a binding international agreement that sets new universal standards on how countries grant and protect intellectual property (IP) helped to change the global climate of patents and the right to access information.
The Previous System
This was part of the belief that information should be disseminated as much as possible, as even though the free rider takes the benefit of information without having to pay for it society gains, as the producer of information does not lose the information. This emphasis places the innovator above the inventor, as the benefit to society of a new breakthrough being used widely is greater from society’s point of view than if an inventor solely made use of it. For example, Drahos, and Mayne considered that the more producers who know how to produce a therapeutic drug the better, as the producers would have to compete on price in order to sell it. [3]
There have been varying uses of free riding throughout economic history, with countries ranging from
As matters of intellectual property originally tended to relate only to domestic innovations the institutions tended to reflect national preferences. For example,
Also, as R&D often was publicly funded it permitted for greater cooperation between countries on major scientific projects, as the benefits of findings were likely to benefit all.
Calls for Greater IP Protection
Since the 1980s traditional industrial policy, whereby governments subsidized various industrial sectors to promote national economic development, had been severely criticized. Its practice became “increasingly less viable both for reasons of budgetary restraints and for fear of trade counterveil measures by other countries.” [6] This combined with the growing popularity of libertarianism and the belief in the free market over public investment created louder concerns for reform of intellectual property rules, particularly from the business community. However, Doern feels that the decline of traditional industrial policy and the emergence of trade related policies are traceable with hindsight but they do not yield a simple casual path for intellectual property for IP institutions.[7]
Supporters of this felt that the monopoly of longer patents is less of a problem than it would have been in the past because “as alternative strategies proliferate, there are fewer and fewer products with inelastic demand curve that allow companies to raise their prices arbitrarily to earn monopoly returns.” [8] Thus, as there is increased choice there is less opportunity for patent holders to abuse their position. However, this pure version of perfect competition fails to stand up to the light in many situations. As a result, the US Government has cut its support for research and development. What used to be a fifty - fifty split in investment has now become one third - two thirds split in research expenditures. [9]
Increasing Intellectual Property Internationally
Until the 1980s
Following bilateral agreements with
During the Uruguay Round the United States pushed for increased levels of IP, with a flat twenty year time period for all patents. This agreement occured without any African country present at the earlier rounds of negotiation, despite the importance of such a decision. It resulted in the linkage between trade and IP being tightened through amending the Trade and Tariff Act in 184 and 1988. As a result,
Effects on Businesses
The economic consequences affect all types of businesses, as agreements such as TRIPS raise the barriers to entry for all companies, making it difficult for new or smaller companies to establish themselves. However, this is especially the case for developing countries, as they tend to have less powerful businesses, especially in high knowledge industries.
In the past, companies were willing to share their technology because it did not seem to be the source of their success and could not be sold for much anyway. [14] However, as a result of lengthening the time period of IP to twenty years there is a considerable benefit to enforcing and claiming rights of patents. For example, Texas Instruments, once liberal in its cross-licensing arrangements with competitors, has become particularly litigious. Its most profitable product line is now patent royalties. For example, the company’s licence income from $30 million in 1990 to nearly $1 billion in 2000 (Rivette and Kline, 2000). [15]
Previously, businesses who developed a product would first attempt to move quickly in producing it in order to get the ‘first mover advantage’ and gain economies of scale so significant that other companies would be put off entering the market. However, as a result of the new system large companies are becoming less willing to share their inventions with others, as they have such a large period of monopoly they have a greater incentive to use their internal resources. As a result there is less dissemination of knowledge, as there is no incentive for companies because they can sit on the patent. Today, 73% of private patents were still based on knowledge generated by public sources such as universities and non-profit or government laboratories. Thurlow felt that this was enough to suggest that secretly held knowledge does not generate the next generation of technology. [16]
The flat twenty year intellectual property time period was introduced by negotiators as an expedient, as the time it would take to introduce separate industry agreements would be time consuming and perhaps preferential to certain industries. However, as a result the flat time period it has greatly distorted many markets. Simple economic logic suggests that these periods of protection “ought to vary greatly by field or sector, depending on varying cost structures, investments, and payback periods.” [17]
As a result, some industries have a greater incentive to produce patents, as the benefit of a patent exceeds the length of the monopoly period given. The table below highlights the fact that even though many patents are being issued it does not mean that the technology being developed would not have come about if the IP protection period was shorter.
Inventions that would not have been developed in the absence of patent protection (%)[18]
Pharmaceuticals 60
Chemicals 38
Petroleum 25
Machinery 17
Fabricated Metal Products 12
Electrical Equipment 11
Primary Metals 1
Office Equipment 0
Motor Vehicles 0
Rubber 0
Textiles 0
The lack of mini-patents, which would provide shorter, less expensive and less rigorous forms of protection has disadvantaged smaller companies. This results in smaller and medium sized companies being unable to compete on a level footing with larger companies.
Small companies are in a lose-lose situation in regards to IP as even if they have a patent it may not guarantee them any security. In situations where rival companies start using a technology or process smaller companies may be unable to afford or have the human resources to mount a legal challenge against the offending company.
Patents do not confer any wealth. The amount spent on securing and enforcing patents does not add any value to an idea. With cases lasting four years or more, costs can go from between $2 million and $10 million per case, resulting in companies spending as much time in the courts as they are in the laboratories. [19]
Jorde and Teece argue that ‘legal scholarship and judicial action (in the
The law community suggests that anti-trust cases will help clarify any misunderstandings through test cases. However, any judges decision will merely reflect previous judgements and will be unable to take account of any economic or political realities of agreements regarding IP.
Effects on Developing Countries
As a result of longer periods of agreements and tougher enforcement of IP protection there has been an increase of foreign technology transfer as a consequence of companies being less concerned about their technology being copied. However, it is difficult to envisage whether this would have happened regardless. The main concern is that the developing world has had a system imposed on it that forces it to pay the developed world for technology that it morally should be discounting the effects of patents.
As mentioned previously, most countries have gone through stages at which they ‘free ride’, borrowing technology from abroad and using it to develop the economic infrastructure until there is domestic pressure to protect domestic innovators. Agreements such as TRIPS have removed this path which had previously allowed countries such as
For example, the
This is especially so given the fact that the patent infrastructure is based more on the developed worlds needs for consumerism, with emphasis on cheap entertainment goods rather than poorer countries needs to cheap medicine for malaria.
No case is this more apparent than the pharmaceutical industry which has now become purely business orientated and seemingly unable to make moral or investment decisions. Take for example the pharmaceutical industries shock at South Africa’s attempts to introduce cheap drugs to deal with the AIDS crisis merely because it would be seen as the thin edge of a wedge of reduced prices or generic goods for other countries.
The pharmaceutical industry has every right to attempt to be profitable. However, the infrastructure put in place appears to knowingly put in place a system whereby the industry maximises its costly investment in developing and testing drugs on both the developed and developing countries of the world. In the case of poor countries inability to develop new drugs for themselves or generic drugs legally this would be a case of abuse of control and overly protectionist policies of developed nations.
Similarly, its market decision making results in greater resources being devoted to solving the crisis of hair loss over the crisis of HIV because developed countries will provide a more profitable marketplace.
Conclusion
By Jonathan McHugh
First written in May 2007
[1] Peter Hall, Jack Hayward and Howard Machin Developments in French Politics (The Machmillan Press Ltd) 1994. p175
[2] S. MacDonald Exploring the hidden costs of patents p.26
[3] P Drahos and R. Mayne Global Intellectual Property Rights: Knowledge, Access and Development (London: Palgrave, 2002) p4
[4] P Drahos and R. Mayne Global Intellectual Property Rights: Knowledge, Access and Development (London: Palgrave, 2002) p4
[5] B. Doern Global Change and Intellectual Property Agencies (Pinter) 1999 p. 7
[6] The Canadian Intellectual Property Office p61
[7] B. Doern Global Change and Intellectual Property Agencies (Pinter) 1999 p. 35
[9] L. Thurow Needed A New System of Intellectual Property Rights Harvard Business Review
[10] L. Thurow Needed A New System of Intellectual Property Rights Harvard Business Review
[11] S. Sell Power and Ideas North South Politics of International Property and Antitrust (State University of New York Press) 1998 p. 183
[12] International Monetary Fund, (World Economic Outlook Database) September 2006;
[13] S. Sell Power and Ideas North South Politics of International Property and Antitrust (State University of New York Press) 1998 p. 183
[14] L. Thurow Needed A New System of Intellectual Property Rights Harvard Business Review
[15] S. MacDonald Exploring the hidden costs of patents p.29
[16] L. Thurow Needed A New System of Intellectual Property Rights Harvard Business Review
[17] The Canadian Intellectual Property Office p. 121
[18] The Canadian Intellectual Property Office p62
[19] S. MacDonald Exploring the hidden costs of patents p.29
[20] Cited from The Canadian Intellectual Property Office p. 63
[21] S. MacDonald Exploring the hidden costs of patents p.32
[22] P Drahos and R. Mayne Global Intellectual Property Rights: Knowledge, Access and Development (London: Palgrave, 2002) p2