At IP Consultores, we are committed to spreading the benefits of an equitable culture of Intellectual Property rights for everybody. Since we started this Intellectual Property project, we settled one of our main goals to facilitate the comprehension of Intellectual Property rights among everyone. Although in Mexico, no study allows us an understanding of the scope of those rights, we can consider some indicators for trying to know this data.
In 2022, Mexico was ranked 55 on the Global Innovation Index 2021, even though the Mexican economy had been ranked 9th among the whole economies. Furthermore, another indicator is that in 2019 Mexico depicted 72.2% of the goods exportations in Latin America, while it just depicted 54% of Intellectual Property Rights in the intensive sectors.
Intellectual Property Rights as cultural human rights
If we pretend to spread Intellectual Property Rights among people, it is necessary to understand them as human rights. We will argue that Intellectual Property rights are economic and cultural human rights. First, it is relevant to distinguish the different types of human rights. There are some civil and political rights, but there are economic and cultural rights too. Even though all human rights are interrelated, it is necessary to grasp the differences among them and understand each one has scope.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states in Article 27 that “everyone has the right to protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary, or artistic production of which he is the author.” This cultural human right is closely related to Intellectual Property rights such as patents, trademarks, copyrights, industrial designs, utility models, and geographical indications.
Although the Paris Convention recognized Industrial Property rights in 1883 and the Berne Convention, Coyrights in 1886, we can hold that the international ground of Intellectual Property rights as cultural human rights is Article 27, pointed out above.
Intellectual Property Rights as economic human rights
A Free-Market Economy is an element of a liberal and democratic political regime. Thinking about a democratic political system without a Free-Market Economy does not mean thinking of a social order that respects all human rights for everyone.
Personal freedom is one of the values protected by human rights. Classical civil rights, such as freedom of speech or press freedom, are moral assumptions for a liberal social order. Other political rights (for instance, to vote in a fair election) are favorable for a democratic political regime too. Since the universal recognition of civil and political rights has been a clear revindication of the human rights movement, economic and cultural rights have not.
Economic freedom is another aspect of personal liberty and will not guarantee without financial freedom. Regarding this issue, it is necessary to highlight that human autonomy is another value protected by human rights.
When someone has the right to choose his project in life, the social order must build so that everybody can choose among the different economic options available. Furthermore, the legal order must guarantee a secure property rights system for encouraging investments and securing the entrepreneurs’ exclusive control over their assets.
International Intellectual Property Law
International Intellectual Property Law has allowed each National Intellectual Property system to be built. Since 1883 with the Paris Convention and 1886 with the Berne Convention, the International Intellectual Property system has been the cornerstone for each one of the national and regional systems. For this reason, everyone needs to understand how the international system works if she pretends to know the main aspects of national or regional Intellectual Property systems.
From now, we will write weekly blog posts to explain International Intellectual Property Law easily. The main goal of this series of posts is to facilitate the knowledge of the fundamental concepts that shape Intellectual Property rights. We will publish monthly the next series of posts: 1) International Patent Law, 2) International Industrial Designs Law, 3) International Copyrights Law, and 4) International Trademark Law.
At IP Consultores, we know that if people could understand the economic and cultural meaning of Intellectual Property rights, it would be easier to develop those rights. For this reason, we are committed to facilitating a broad understanding of Intellectual Property rights, and everybody can incorporate them into their undertakings.
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