International Trade Meets Intellectuall Property Essay

International Trade Meets Intellectuall Property - Essay Example These policies include the granting of trademarks, copyrights and patents. Patents protect inventions that are novel, not obvious to those in the field, and useful. Trademarks are commercial symbols that producers use to identify their services and products. Copyrights protect authorship works, such as books, from the time of their creation. The protection extends to integrated circuits lay outs designs, trade secrets, geographical indications and industrial design (Bainbridge 100). The stakes in protecting intellectual property were high for many companies in the US. Not only in the product development is cost, in the knowledge-based and artistic industries, but success rarely guarantee. Before TRIPS, the completion of TRIPS, US International Trade Commission estimates were that American companies lose between $50 and $70 billion annually to inadequate intellectual property protection abroad. Most affected of this are Pharmaceuticals, films, publications, chemical products, sound recording and software. For example, international markets were of growing significance to the US film and television business. However, as videocassette recorders became readily available the level of film piracy increased (Idris 241). The position IP-based industries were not universally accepted, however. Many developing nations oppose the idea of strengthening international intellectual property rights. Moreover, not only the developing countries opposed to it but also some industrialized countries. These nations, traditionally did not allow patents on food and medicines holding that monopolies should not be permitted on products so essential to consumer welfare. Developing countries argue that increasing IP protection brings no significant, dynamic gains but inflicts considerable static costs: price increases, harm to consumer welfare and more royalties to foreigners (Goldstein 150). Many developing countries did not that intellectual property