Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the U.S. economy is its dynamic marriage of intellectual creativity with commercial advantage. An essential component of this marriage is a robust system of intellectual property rights. Ironically, the U.S. system may have become so tilted in favor of patent and copyright owners that it discourages innovation even as it protects innovators' rights.
In this context, the aggressive U.S. campaign to push its own intellectual property standards in trade negotiations makes little economic sense. Economist Keith E. Maskus instead calls for reforms that would tighten standards for patentability while making it easier to challenge patents of questionable quality. On the international front, he recommends scaling back efforts to raise intellectual property standards to U.S. levels and paying more attention to enforcement of existing standards in emerging markets.