The Elgar Companion to Intellectual Property and the Sustainable Development Goals

Elgar Companions to the Sustainable Development Goals series

Edited by Bita Amani, Associate Professor of Law, Queen’s University, Canada, Caroline B. Ncube, Professor and the DSI/NRF SARChI Research Chair in Intellectual Property, Innovation and Development, Department of Commercial Law, University of Cape Town, South Africa and Matthew Rimmer, Professor of Intellectual Property and Innovation Law, Faculty of Business and Law, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia

Complex geopolitical debate surrounds the role of intellectual property (IP) in advancing and achieving the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs). Summarising and advancing this discourse, this prescient Companion is a thorough examination of how IP law interacts, influences and impacts each of the seventeen SDGs.

‘Intellectual property rights have major implications for every one of the Sustainable Development Goals. This excellent interdisciplinary volume containing top-quality contributions from established IP scholars and rising stars from Global South and North offers by far the most comprehensive and diverse coverage on a vital but hugely complex field. Essential reading for all those who care about the state of Planet Earth.’
– Uma Suthersanen, Queen Mary University of London, UK

‘A thoughtful and foundational work by seasoned scholars and development practitioners, offering wide-ranging analyses of the complex role of intellectual property rights (IPRs) in economic development and human capital formation. It is a rich contribution to the global debate over the role of IP in economic, social, and cultural development, providing critical exploration of the socio-legal and policy implications of the SDGs in relation to IP norms that arguably impede welfare gains for the most vulnerable members of our global society. The volume outlines policy tools to help catalyze IPR reform and presents innovation tradeoffs that are at stake in advancing implementation of the SDGs; it presents diverse theoretical perspectives on the competing claims and demands for a global IPR system that facilitates innovation pathways supportive of human flourishing. Combining history, law, economics and political economy, the contributions in this volume collectively are analytic, informative, and compelling.’
– Ruth L. Okediji, Harvard Law School, US

‘Our common future depends urgently on prioritizing community well-being over destructive rent-seeking. Addressing this enormous challenge, this book dares us to re-align intellectual property’s purposes with each of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, hopefully to maximize the flourishing of the broadest array of living beings—and indeed of Earth itself.’
– Margaret Chon, Seattle University School of Law, US

‘The Sustainable Development Goals have become a key framework to assess the impact of national policies and international regimes. This book fills an important gap and is unique in assessing, with original research by leading scholars, intellectual property in the context of such Goals. Not only academics but policy makers will benefit from reading this book.’
– Carlos Correa, The South Centre, Switzerland