Common Ground: The Case for Collaboration between Anti-Poverty Advocates and Public Interest Intellectual Property Advocates

This article examines the previously unarticulated common ground between scholars and advocates who work to eliminate poverty, and scholars and advocates who work on intellectual property issues in the public interest. The article first illustrates how scholars and advocates working on poverty and on public interest intellectual property have relied on rights talk to frame their social movements. That framing has accentuated difference between the movements, when, in fact, the movements share core principles. Relying on Martha Nussbaum's theory of capabilities, the paper suggests a reframing of the goals of both social movements which brings common ground to the fore. Using the reframing, the article then demonstrates the benefits of collaboration between the two social movements and offers three examples of potential co-movement work.