PhD student: Mrs Dr A. Moerland-Dahrendorf

Promotors: Prof A.W.J. Kamperman Sanders, Prof P.L.H. van den Bossche

Duration: 1/6/2007 - 30/6/2011

PhD defence: Maastricht, 4/10/2013

Abstract:

The research project addresses the recent proliferation of bilateral and regional agreements containing IP provisions that conflicts with multilateral approaches to IP protection within the WTO and WIPO. The focus of my research is on the legal and political challenges which this important development in economic relations poses for developing countries. The research contains three parts: 1) a legal analysis of the IP provisions contained in multilateral and specific bilateral/regional agreements; 2) a political examination of what explains the move away from the multilateral approach to the bilateral/regional approach, by analyzing the influence of business and NGO networks on developing countries IP policies of four case studies; and 3) a comparative analysis of the influence of business and NGO networks on the decision whether to seek multilateral or bilateral/regional regulation of IP