Are Human Rights and Intellectual Property Rights Complementing or Conflicting?
Human Rights and Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) are two different legal areas that hardly intersected with each other before the 90s. In the beginning, they both grew separately and never infringed on each other’s domains. However, recently, it has been observed that these fields of law are interrelated. One view about the relationship between IPRs and human rights is that they can conflict with each other, while another one reflects that they may co-exist with one another. Such views often leave people with queries like; Are IP Rights compatible with human rights or causing damage to them? Let’s understand the relation between these two rights and find out an apt answer to the above-given question.
IPRs – being complementary to human rights The IP Rights of authors and creators facilitate cultural participation and scientific access rather than restricting them. It means both human rights and IPRs are compatible in the sense that later tries to strike a balance between access on one side and incentives on another. Indeed, one can acknowledge the intersection between these two legal laws by balancing positions and interests.
IPRs – being different from human rights Looking at the history of these two laws, one can easily comprehend that human rights were not a priority for IP experts and vice versa. Besides, human rights professionals are still focused on