Intellectual Property and Human Rights: Learning to Live Together

Daniel J. Gervais, University of Ottawa

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(c) 2008 Kluwer Law International BV, The Netherlands and Daniel J. Gervais

Abstract

Intellectual property and human rights must learn to live together. Traditionally, there have been two dominant views of this “cohabitation,” namely a conflict view, which emphasizes the negative impacts of intellectual property on rights such as freedom of expression or the right to health and security, and a compatibility model, which emphasizes that both sets of rights strive towards the same fundamental equilibrium. This Chapter takes the dualist view that both are right, though there is, and should be, much more truth to the second approach in the coming years.