Yi Shin Tang, The international trade policy for technology transfers - Legal and economic dilemmas on Multilateralism versus Bilateralism

• Author: Thomas Dreier
• Position: Dr. iur., MCJ (New York University), Professor of Law at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT),
• Pages: 40-43

2010

40

1

The importance of international technol-1

ogy transfer for economic development can

hardly be overstated. Whereas the often con-

     

the one hand and developing countries on

the other have long been the cause of serious

political obstacles to technology transfers, by

now it appears to be accepted by most schol-

ars that higher levels of intellectual prop-

erty rights protection are fundamental for

encouraging both foreign direct investment

(FDI) and licen sing. However, the best strat-

-

tection and to what extent such strategies



objectives pursued in international negotia-

tions and relations remains an open issue. In

particular, it is not quite clear if, and if so, to

what extent, either FDIs or licensing agree-



preferred. Similarly doubts exist with regard

to the effects of multilateral or bilateral trea-

ties on the transfer of technology.

In view of these questions, the main focus of 2

the present book – which was written as a

Ph.D. thesis at the Universities of Turin/Italy

and Ghent/Belgium – is on assessing whether

certain types of international rules are more

     

     -

oping countries. Of course, such an endeavor

will encounter a variety of methodological

obstacles, which Yi Shin Tang describes right

at the very beginning of his book. In par-

ticular, the relationship between FDIs and

licensing is much more intertwined than the

formal opposition might suggest. The reason

is simply that licensing decisions by private

-

national or at least bilateral legal framework.

Inversely, existing licensing habits, needs

or demands are shaping the content of FDIs.

Statistical data is also not always available,

 

grained for permitting unambiguous conclu-

sions. However, the data available do clearly

indicate that in spite of an increase in the in-

Yi Shin Tang, The international trade policy for

technology transfers – Legal and economic dilemmas on

Multilateralism versus Bilateralism, Wolters Kluwer Law

& Business 2009 (Global Trade Law Series, vol. 20), 230

p., ISBN-10: 9041128255, ISBN-13: 978-9041128256

© 2010 Thomas Dreier

Everbody may disseminate this article by electronic means and make it available for download under the terms and

conditions of the Digit al Peer Publishing Licence (DPPL). A copy of the license tex t may be obtained at http://nbn-resolving.

de/urn:nbn:de:0009-dppl-v3-en8 .

Recommended citation : Dreier, Thomas, Book re view - Yi Shin Tang, The international trade polic y for technology tr ansfers,

1 (2010) JIPITEC 40, par agraph 1

by Thomas Dreier

Dr. iur., MCJ (New York University), Professor of Law at the

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT),

Book review: