IPR protections are legislative. It requires government action as the framework for upholding rights.

IPR systems comprise of two distinct elements: (a) IPR protection and (b) public IPR enforcement (Khoury et al. 2014; Peng et al. 2017a). The IPR protection element relates to the availability of IPR law as this appears in the statutes of a country’s legislative framework. The range of IPR law in a country determines which intellectual assets can receive IPR protection, the duration of IPR protection (e.g., typically 20 years for patents) and the available legal sanctions that can be used by IPR enforcement agents (OECD 2014). For example, IPR law in a country determines the level and range of fines that IPR infringers may be sentenced with if convicted for IPR violation. Countries offering strong IPR protection generally provide legislative frameworks that offer IPR protection coverage to a wide type of IPR assets and a wide number of legal enforcement mechanisms for use by the IPR enforcement agents (Ginarte and Park 1997). In contrast, weak IPR law protection relates to the provision of some IPR protection however, protection may not be available for many other types of IPR that receive protection in other countries. There are differences in the availability and range of IPR law protection between countries internationally such as country specific legal exemptions or lack of IPR law availability for specific IPR assets e.g., the patentability of software and plant and animal varieties (Park 2008). Therefore, while IPR owners may be awarded IPR protection in one country they may not be able to register and protect their rights in another country. In addition, the available laws related to the enforcement of IPR may not provide a range of legal options to IPR enforcement agents to carry out their operations effectively. For example, this can relate to the potential lack of legislation that allows IPR enforcement agents to award and enforce preliminary injunctions in IPR infringement cases.