Intellectual property rights: The pharmaceutical and garment industry

Intellectual property rights are extremely important for the pharmaceutical and textile and fabric sectors. Due to the large investments in research and development made by the pharmaceutical industry and the long and expensive regulatory processes required to take new pharmaceutical products to market, relying on the IP system to recover R&D investments is a crucial part of the business strategy of the leading research-based companies.

For the garments sector fashion is at the heart of the textile and fabric industry. Fresh, new fabric designs are introduced every season. Among the range of IP rights that may be relevant to this industry, the protection of industrial designs may be at the top of the list. Industrial design protection helps the owner to prevent others from exploiting the aesthetic aspects of a product, such as new textile prints. Read more about the possibilities in this document.

This document is an article out of a series on intellectual property rights published in the CBI News Bulletin in 2006. All articles are written by Esteban Burrone from WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organisation).