International IP is bad for developing economies and prevents tech diffusion key to the net benefit
Peter K. Yu 7, Associate Professor of Law and Director, Intellectual Property and Communications Law Program, Michigan State University College of Law; Core Faculty, Asian Studies Center, Adjunct Professor of Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media, Michigan State University. "The International Enclosure Movement" " Indiana Law Journal: Vol. 82: Iss. 4, Article 1. //pipk
Most of the recent intellectual property literature concerns the "enclosure of the public domain"' or the "one-way ratchet" of intellectual property protection.2 While these concerns are significant and rightly placed, a different, and perhaps more important, enclosure movement is currently taking place at the international level. Instead of the public domain, this concurrent movement encloses the policy space of individual countries and requires them to adopt one-size-fits-all legal standards that ignore their local needs, national interests, technological capabilities, institutional capacities, and public health conditions. Unlike the movement to enclose the public domain, which "fenc[es] off common land and turn[s] it into private property, 3 the international enclosure movement fences off areas that provide attractive policy options for less developed countries. 4 By virtue of this enclosure, these countries are forced to adopt inappropriate intellectual property systems, and they as a result have also lost their ability to respond to domestic crises within their borders.