International Intellectual Property Law and Human Security

This book is the first to examine the international intellectual property (IP) legal regime from the perspective of human security. The latter encompasses legal, development and human rights dimensions which, it is argued, must be integrated into the fabric of the IP regime. Fundamental human rights such as the right to life, to health and to food, which form part of an umbrella ‘right to development’, must increasingly inform the crafting of IP policies and laws at the national and international level.

The author, building on previous work on IP law and security, contributes to elucidating the multi-faceted relationship between IP and human security, which encompasses linkages between law, human rights, development and IP. The book captures the dramatic calls by developing countries and indigenous peoples for a more balanced intellectual property regime that allows for maximum use of flexibilities that cater to their developmental priorities. In this connection, the book discusses the roles of international business organizations (IBOs) and of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in advancing a development-oriented IP system. It proposes practical principles for IBOs and it recommends the formation of an ‘International Equity Panel’ within the WIPO.

This book will be of interest to IP and human rights scholars, international law and relations specialists and international security analysts, in particular those interested in non-traditional security issues. It may also serve as a resource book for the international business community on developmental and human rights aspects of IP.

Dr. Robin Ramcharan, LLM, is Professor of International Relations and Law with Alliance University College of Law in Bangalore, India. He also teaches in the School of Business at Alliance. Previously, he was affiliated to the University of Toronto, Brock University and the Royal Military College in Canada and worked for six years in the Worldwide Academy of the World Intellectual Property Organization, Geneva, in the area of cooperation for development. Robin Ramcharan also worked for the World Economic Forum and is Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Gomez Centre, a human rights consultancy in Bangkok, Thailand.

With a Foreword by Professor Gudmundur Alfredsson, former Chair of the Advisory Board of the Worldwide Academy of WIPO.