From poverty to power - Oxfam-Québec

FROM POVERTY TO POWERprotectionism’ in the shape of IP rules that close down the flow ofknowledge and technology. IP negotiations lure the corporate lobbyistsout of the shadows, revealing their extraordinary access and influenceover the US and EU governments, among others (see page 328).The underlying principles of IP protection are simple. New inventionsare often costly to develop, and if rival firms were allowed immediatelyto copy and market new inventions, the incentives for companies toinvest in R&D would be few. IP laws provide companies with atemporary monopoly during which they can charge high prices torecoup their investment.The task of maintaining a balance between society’s interest increating incentives for innovation on the one hand, and promotingthe widespread dispersion of inventions on the other has been fraughtever since the Venetians first introduced patents at the end of thefifteenth century. Corporations find it far easier to make a profit frommonopoly than from innovation, and so have invariably argued forstrengthened IP rules, often to the detriment of wider society. At aninternational level, rich countries have consistently used IP topreserve their technological edge and ‘kick away the ladder’ frompotential competitors.Ironically, even in the rich countries the proliferation of patentsthreatens to undermine their purported aim. In many fields, firmsseeking to innovate must navigate through a ‘patent thicket’ protectingexisting technologies that they want to incorporate into a new design.In stampedes such as the patent applications on hundreds ofthousands of gene sequences for fragments of human DNA, the hardslog of innovation has given way to a Klondike-style gold rush of‘patent mining’ as an easy source of profits.The role of technology in development follows a fairly standardpath, described by one UN report as ‘a developed, innovating “North”and a developing, imitating “South”’. 65 All countries initially grow byimitating and adapting existing technologies. As they approach theglobal ‘technological frontier’, they move into innovation. One of thereasons why countries such as China or India, which are in ‘catch-up’mode, grow so much faster than the industrialised countries is thatadapting existing technologies is much easier than creating new ones.326