This study analyses underlying themes of the international discourse on intellectual property law (IP) and in this sense raises awareness on how intellectual property law is commonly perceived beyond the circle of legal experts. Methodologically it is situated within the domain of discourse analysis, which argues that the current understanding of intellectual property law is strongly embedded in a specific representative order that paves the way for framing views and opinions on intellectual property law in one specific way, while systematically silencing alternative positions. The baseline of the analysis forms a literature review of 392 texts that were identified through a systematic database analysis of scholarly work, articles in the popular press, statements from NGOs, industry reports and documents available on the websites of national patent offices and international organisations. We found that the current discourse on IP is driven by two different camps. On the one side are those who associate IP with the negative side effects of globalisation and see in IP a mechanism to erode important social and cultural values. On the other side, we see that those who want to advance the IP agenda hardly address how IP may promote equitable innovation, but instead repeatedly refer to counterfeiting and piracy as a major threat to industry. Overall, the discourse derives much vocabulary from the domain of war, fights and battlefields. We did not find any solution driven approaches seeking to explore how IP may be used as a means to advance the knowledge economy worldwide or bridge current divides prevailing in international systems of innovation.
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