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Prioritising Human Development In African Intellectual Property Law, Janewa Osei Tutu
Prioritising Human Development In African Intellectual Property Law, Janewa Osei Tutu
J. Janewa Osei-Tutu
The global intellectual property structure has been criticised for requiring developing nations to adopt
intellectual property standards that are appropriate for industrialised countries. Some commentators have
observed that industrialised nations, such as the United States, developed their economies by borrowing
from others, but that through the use of globalised intellectual property standards, they have effectively
limited other nations from doing the same. This article does not aim to revisit the question of the suitability
of the existing intellectual property standards for developing countries. Nor does it seek to analyse whether,
as a general proposition, intellectual property rights should be expanded …
Human Development As A Core Objective Of Global Intellectual Property, Janewa Osei Tutu
Human Development As A Core Objective Of Global Intellectual Property, Janewa Osei Tutu
J. Janewa Osei-Tutu
Global intellectual property obligations shape domestic laws and policies. More
than twenty years since the first multilateral trade-based intellectual property
agreement, critics contend that global intellectual property law prioritizes intellectual
property rights over other interests, and profits over people. Faced with international
intellectual-property obligations, nations have been forced to justify laws and policies
designed to promote human development in areas such as health and education as
exceptions to intellectual property protection. This is the result of legal
interpretations that treat the objectives of intellectual property protection and human
development as inconsistent with one another. Drawing on the objectives of trade …