As the effective application of new technologies has become increasingly important to
most nations’ economic growth and development, the significance of intellectual property (IP)
rights has also increased. Most technological innovations come from the world’s most advanced
countries; and the transfers of those technologies to developing nations, mostly through the
foreign direct investments (FDI) of multinational companies, are critical to efforts to modernize
their economies. The economic returns on these transfers depend on the foreign investor’s
ability to claim the profits from its innovations. As a result, a willingness to respect and enforce
the IP rights of those foreign direct investors has become a prerequisite for modernization in
most developing countries.