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Towards An Intellectual Property Bargaining Theory: The Post-Wto Era, Daniel Benoliel, Bruno Salama

Daniel Benoliel

This article proposes a positive bargaining theory for intellectual property-based technologies in the post-WTO era. It focuses on negotiations between patent-sensitive industries and developing countries over legal endowments and access conditions in an archetypical patent-sensitive industry, namely the pharmaceutical industry. The ability on the part of developing countries to issue, or threaten to issue, compulsory licenses over pharmaceutical products serves as a working example.

The article's analysis of the bargaining power possessed by developing countries combines a conventional assessment of market size with a qualitative analysis that highlights the effects of these countries' propensity to innovate. The ensuing bargaining situation …