Intellectual Property Rights and International Trade: Conflict or Coexistence?

Intellectual property rights and international commercial relations are shown as opposites. Intellectual Property is the exclusive right over an invention, brand, creation, design, geographical indication and trade secret. International trade seeks larger markets, more sources of supply, elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers, and freer movement across the international community of good, services as well as technology as contrasted to domestic trade. When disagreements on intellectual property occur, they tend to be sharper. This is when patent protection can have an impact on the price of medicine, copyright rules govern the digital trade, trademark enforcement limits parallel importation and when developed and developing countries disagree on protection level. There are difficulties in the relationship, but not just that. Today, the production of news commodities is more brand-oriented and technology-intensive than resource-intensive. Cross-border investment and trade in innovation-intensive sectors may drop without reliable IP protection. Failure to create public-interest constraints and competition safeguards will make intellectual property a tool for exclusion from the market. The paper argues that the intellectual property rights and international trade can co-exist if the legal mechanism preserves functional equilibrium between private incentive and public access. It is tangible that through calibrated legal design and effective implementation of: TRIPS agreement; Doha declaration; compulsory licensing; exhaustion doctrines; competition law; technology transfer obligations and special treatment for the developing countries co-existence is possible.