Towards an Intellectual Property Bargaining Theory: The Post-WTO Era

This Article proposes a positive bargaining theory for intellectual property-based technologies in the post-World Trade Organization (“WTO”) era. It focuses on negotiations between patentsensitive industries and developing countries over legal endowments and access conditions in an archetypical patent-sensitive industry, namely the pharmaceutical industry. The ability of developing countries to issue, or threaten to issue, compulsory licenses over pharmaceutical products serves as a working example. This Article’s analysis of the bargaining power possessed by developing countries combines a conventional assessment of market size with a qualitative analysis that highlights the effects of these countries’ propensity to innovate. The ensuing bargaining