Institutional Capacity to Administer and Enforce IP Rights in Ethiopia

This book shares insights on the landscape of administration and enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights in Ethiopia. It argues the benefits of IP regime have to be envisioned with institutional capacity. This book shares the notions of New Institutional Economics (NIE) to define institutional capacity. Quality of IP laws should be seen as crucial element of institutional capacity. IP administration and enforcement in developing countries as in the case of Ethiopia may face conundrums. This, however, cannot hide the prospect of the IP regime if the country has liberalized trade, good inflow of FDI and promising technological capability. The Status of Ethiopia in the aforementioned criterion is addressed. A critical assessment is made on the development of IP rights, current IP rights administration and enforcement practices in Ethiopia to identify the challenges and prospects. Relevant policy considerations have been drawn from the analysis. This book is aimed to serve as a reference to IP researchers worldwide who are interested in having in-depth understanding how IP fits in the development aspiration and machinery of developing countries like Ethiopia.