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Gendreau, Ysolde --- "Surfacing: The Canadian Intellectual Property Identity" [2008] ELECD 373; in Gendreau, Ysolde (ed), "An Emerging Intellectual Property Paradigm" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2008)

Book Title: An Emerging Intellectual Property Paradigm

Editor(s): Gendreau, Ysolde

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847205971

Section: Chapter 12

Section Title: Surfacing: The Canadian Intellectual Property Identity

Author(s): Gendreau, Ysolde

Number of pages: 16

Extract:

12. Surfacing: the Canadian intellectual
property identity
Ysolde Gendreau
To assert one's own voice in the concert of nations: here is an endeavour that
may seem almost foolhardy in the contemporary world of intellectual property.
In an age of increasing globalisation ­ to use a worn out phrase ­ few coun-
tries are able to express loudly their identity and run counter to the waves of
international harmonisation. Who, indeed, can afford to be isolated?
Increasingly, the positions that may be exemplified by one country's stance are
perceived as representative of positions that are shared by a recognised
community of nations. To wit, the debate in South Africa on the price exacted
on patented anti-HIV drugs in the 1990s has been emblematic of the views
held by developing countries on drug patents and even patents in general.
After all, which country does not elaborate intellectual property policies in
light of its overall political and commercial alliances?
Of course, such political and commercial contexts do not by themselves
account for all the policy decisions that a country may make. The degree of
integration with others that countries experience is one factor that can influ-
ence the situation: it is easy to appreciate that the intellectual property laws of
a European Community country are much more dictated on an on-going basis
by community principles than those of a member country of the North
American Free Trade Agreement can be by the terms of that text.1 Moreover,
the strength of ...


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