Limitations to the Economic MODEL of the TRIPS PLUS ULTRA

These are some limitations to the macroeconomic model of the TRIPS PLUS ULTRA proposal:

• One of the inherent limitations of the economic model is that it statically compares the patent protection in a poor country with the patent protection in a richer country, at a given time. This provides a very important and valuable conclusion: patents produce less deadweight loss in a rich country than they do in a poor country. Nonetheless, it should be made clear that it does not capture the “kingside casting” of one year of protection in a poor country for a year in a rich country that the TRIPS PLUS ULTRA proposal entails. The economic conditions of countries change over time. This model does not capture that dynamism.

It does lead to the general conclusion, though, true under the ceteris paribus described in it and therefore subject to those limitations, that exchanging one year of protection within a poor country with one year of protection within a rich country, to structure the TRIPS PLUS ULTRA proposal, would tend produce overall less deadweight loss, globally.