| Subsequent to the introduction of the Agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) as part of the rules governing the global trading system (WTO), the enforcement of such rights has become a focal point of confrontations between the developed industrial nations and the developing countries (especially the emerging economies). Mounting external pressure on Asian and African nations, as on other nations elsewhere, has taken the shape of annual reports of culprits and pirate nations. The tirades against the culprits extend to threats of retaliatory action particularly by the US and more and more by EU and Japan. In spite of the support for or opposition to this stance taken by commentators and policy-makers, including among those in developing nations, two principal issues tend to be suppressed or ignored. Firstly, the role of IP in economic or social development is not perceived to be dependent on who bears the costs of enforcement. Secondly, it is often overlooked that the problem of IP enforcement in the end merges with the general problem of the establishment of the rule of law, of the recognition of civil rights and their implementation in practice. This paper seeks to examine these issues in order to fill the relative void in current thinking. |