The Protection of Intellectual Property Rights Under International Investment Law

Abstract Foreign direct investment (FDI) has played an increasingly significant role in world economic activity and development. During this time, another powerful trend has been transforming an important part of modern economies: they are becoming predominantly 'conceptual' and shifting the emphasis in asset valuation from physical to intellectual property (IP). A similar change can be observed in FDI: they are reflecting an increasing concentration of intellectual capital invested in knowledge goods protected by intellectual property rights. Thus, IP rights have never been more economically and politically important or controversial than they are today. There have long been international treaties that protect IP, but in recent years other international treaties have come into being that protect IP rights along with other property rights. These treaties include various international investment agreements (IIAs), which regard IP rights as a protected investment. This book analyses the standards of treatment and protection enshrined in IIAs for IP rights, with reference to topics such as the interaction of international investment law with IP-specific treaties and public policies; investor–state dispute settlement; IP-related investment cases; intellectual property as an investment; relative standards of treatment (such as national treatment and most-favoured-nation treatment); absolute standards of treatment (such as fair and equitable treatment and full protection and security); and expropriation. The book not only comprehensively describes how intellectual property rights are protected in the context of international investment law, but also attempts to fill gaps and address questions so far left open by the emerging case law addressing the IP–investment interface.