This is a part of our series “Are TRIPS of any usefulness for the general public ?”
One of the arguments of its promoters are the incentiveness to conduct R&D.
According to WHO (World Health Organization) recent report on exploitation monopoly intellectual property (geez, I can’t stand that vocable), this isn’t the case. In all fairness, the part of the report about TRIPS strongly focus on pharmaceutical industry in India. The net result, however, is clear: pharma expenditures have increased, and innovation has decreased.
Next time someone’s telling me TRIPS boosts R&D, I hope she’ll have rock-solid proof…