Exporting Intellectual Property Rights to Emerging Countries: EU and US Approaches Compared

This article focuses on the EU’s and the US’s relationship with Brazil, India and China (BIC) in the area of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). The comparison of EU and US approaches yields the interplay between hierarchical (coercive) and horizontal (network-based) strategies used by both sides to advance a maximalist IP agenda vis-à-vis the BIC. We furthermore find the EU taking inspiration (i.e. ‘learning’) from the US in the process of strengthening its external IP policy. Switching the angle to the ‘demand-side’ of emerging countries, China comes out as the most accommodative among the BIC in terms of aligning its IP (especially patent) legislation and enforcement practices with standards promoted by the EU and the US. India and Brazil, on the other hand, have shown more signs of contestation, not only in domestic implementation but also in terms of opposing and seeking alternatives to EU- and US-induced global IP norms. Variation between the BIC is explained, inter alia, by domestic concerns related to innovation in China, the role of the (generics) pharmaceutical industry in India, and the persistence of developmentalist ideas in parts of the Brazilian public administration.