How Intellectual Property Rights, Licensing and Foreign Direct Investments Shape the Technology Transfer Landscape in Small Developing Countries? Case Study of the Republic of Macedonia

11 Pages Posted: 16 Nov 2013

See all articles by Mirjana Stankovic

Mirjana Stankovic

The World Bank Group

Bratislav Stankovic

United States Patent and Trademark Office

Date Written: November 15, 2013

Abstract

In the last twenty years, many developing countries have undertaken serious reforms of their intellectual property rights (IPR) systems in terms of strengthening of their protection and regulating for more efficient enforcement. This process has been stimulated by numerous multilateral, regional and bilateral agreements, such as the TRIPS (Agreement on trade related aspects of intellectual property), the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), and a series of Partnership Agreements negotiated and concluded between the European Union and certain developing countries from Europe and the Middle East. In today’s globalized society, knowledge and information are at the core of the growth agenda, and are increasingly essential for gaining and maintaining competitive edge. It seems that the economic and political globalization have deepened the gap between the rich nations and the poor even more, contributing to the imbalanced distribution of material wealth and knowledge, where most of the intangible resources, protected by intellectual property rights (IPRs), are created and kept in developed nations. IPRs can be defined as monopoly rights given by the society for a limited period of time as a reward for creativity and innovativeness. Even though they are intended to promote scientific and social progress, in the case of small, landlocked developing countries they might act as inhibitor to knowledge and technology absorption and diffusion. It is beyond the scope of this paper to consider each of these issues in detail and their multifaceted interrelationships. Rather, this paper aims to contribute to the academic discussion on the impact of the degree of IPR protection on the intensity of technology transfer transactions through licensing and foreign direct investments (FDI) in small developing countries, by taking the example of the Republic of Macedonia.

Keywords: Intellectual Property Rights, Foreign Direct Investments, Licensing

Suggested Citation

Stankovic, Mirjana and Stankovic, Bratislav, How Intellectual Property Rights, Licensing and Foreign Direct Investments Shape the Technology Transfer Landscape in Small Developing Countries? Case Study of the Republic of Macedonia (November 15, 2013). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2354936 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2354936

Mirjana Stankovic (Contact Author)

The World Bank Group ( email )

1818 H Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20433
United States

Bratislav Stankovic

United States Patent and Trademark Office ( email )

400 Dulany St.
Alexandria, VA 22314
United States

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