IPR Wrong for Developing Countries

The 2007 Summer Fellows of the Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Program organized a seminar titled Intellectual Property Rights: Wrong for Developing Countries?

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The invited speakers were John Wilbanks, Executive Director of Science Commons at Creative Commons and Bruce Lehman, Chairman, International Intellectual Property Institute.

The seminar examined Intellectual Property Rights and their implications for developing countries. Proponents argue that IPR promotes economic growth in developing countries by providing incentives for innovation. However, opponents contend that IPR discourages information sharing and collaborative innovation fundamental to balancing society's economic and social goals with the planet's environmental limits. By presenting pros and cons of IPR and their effect on information sharing, the seminar provided a lively debate on whether intellectual property rights are wrong for sustainable development in developing countries.

Do IPR promote economic growth in developing countries? Do IPR promote sustainable environmental practices in developing countries? Do IPR promote better science and technology in developing countries? These and related issues were the topic of the seminar open to the public.

The seminar was for educational purposes only and was not connected to an NAS/NAE/IOM/NRC project, report or committee. While no official report or summary was produced from this seminar, podcasts of the seminar are available. The podcasts are divided into three parts for ease of download, in chronological order:

• ![01_John_Wilbanks.m4a] John Wilbanks, 12 mins 55 secs, 6.1 Mb

• ![02_Bruce_Lehman.m4a] Bruce Lehman, 13 mins 58 secs, 6.6 Mb

• ![03_Question_and_Answer.m4a] Audience Question and Answer, 48 mins 37 secs, 23 Mb