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28 Liverpool L. Rev. 1 (2007)

handle is hein.journals/lvplr28 and id is 1 raw text is: Liverpool Law Review (2007) 28:1-9 © Springer 2007 DOI 10.1007/s10991-007-9012-7 EDITORIAL: FREE TRADE, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND TRIPS-PLUS WORLD This special edition of the Liverpool Law Review focuses on recent developments in the field of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) particularly the emergence during the last decade of the TRIPS- Plus phenomena and its influence over our world. With contribu- tions by specialised international academics and authors, the pri- mary aim of this special edition is to contribute to the current debate and to highlight the problems and implications surrounding recent developments in this field which have been the subject of public debate and controversy in recent times. It is noteworthy to mention that these recent developments have given rise not to just economic but also to other complex moral, social, ethical, and legal issues. Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) are playing an increasingly pivotal role in our lives. Indeed, these rights are affiliated with almost every aspect of our world. Accordingly, IPRs involvement is evident in many respects ranging from and covering agriculture, access to medicine, economic development, human rights, research and development, branding, inventions, industrial designs and many other fields. In fact because of the important role they play in any economy, IPRs became to represent the fourth pillar and indicator of the wealth of any nation in modern times.1 This extraordinarily entrenched role of IPRs in our daily lives is not confined to a certain geographical part of the world nor it is the privilege of the rich. The influence of these rights reaches every region and individual. Indeed, this explains why this particular field of research has been and remains one of the most dynamic and controversial area of legal specialisation. Generally speaking, IPRs cover many rights including patents, trademarks, geographical indications, copyrights, trade secrets, industrial designs to name but a few. However, it would be Adam Smith said that the 'wealth of any nation rested on three pillars: Labour, Capital and Natural resources. Our generation has added a fourth pillar-intellectual property in all of its forms'. Mossinghoff, Gerald National Obligations Under Intellectual Property Treaties: The Beginning of a True International Regime 9 Federal Circuit Bar Journal 4 (2000) 591-603, at 591.

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