Intellectual property rights (IPRs) have never been more economically and politically important than they  are today. Different forms of IPRs are mentioned in debates on diverse topics, such as public health, food  security, trade, education, biodiversity and others. In today’s knowledge economy, it becomes indispensable  for least developed countries (LDCs) to gather a good understanding of how IPRs function and on what form  of IPR may be better suited to protect various forms of innovation. This is key to inform policy making at the  domestic level.

Some authors have argued for IPRs to be delinked from issues such as trade, in order to make more space  for other issues, such as human rights (Ncube et al., 2017, p. 28). This is due to an obsolete perception  of how trade is conducive to innovation and socio-economic growth in LDCs. For decades, the United  Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has been calling for a paradigm shift away from  traditional development paths, which have reinforced commodity dependence, towards new ones centered  on building new and fully using existing productive capacities. UNCTAD (2004) already called for national  and international policies to be rooted in a development-driven approach to trade, rather than a trade-driven  approach to development. The shift toward the development of productive capacities could enable LDCs  to diversify their economies and exports, and thus move away from dependence on primary commodities. 

LDCs need to redirect the development path that they have been following up until now, as it has resulted  in insufficient progress by most LDCs along the three dimensions of sustainable development: economic,  social and environmental. Vulnerabilities and gaps in the current development model acutely exposed by the  COVID-19 pandemic require the adaptation of a development strategy that allows for growth and structural  transformation, while taking into account social and environmental aspects (UNCTAD, 2022a).