In the 1980s and 1990s, intellectual property rights (IPRs) have increasingly been considered as a major component of the institutional nexus which promotes innovation and risky business, especially in biotechnology and information technologies (IT). At the end of the 1990s, the development of the Internet has strongly reinforced these concerns about IPRs.

The Internet has also increased the promise and the perils of ITs. The notion of a 'digital dilemma' underscores the fact that the extension of access to information can undermine the production of information as it becomes both free and less profitable. The same dynamics are at the root of the extension of IPRs snce the 1980s.What is at stake is the balance between incentives to innovate and produce original information, and the diffusion of knowledge. IPRs have been substantially strenghtened in order to stimulate the production of knowledge, but some now wonder whether access has not been threatened as a result.

This 'Note' explores this broad set of issues by focusing first on the strenghtening of patents, and second on the case of ITs. It takes on an economic perspective to analyze interactions between IPRs and innovation. It also deals with the issue of IPRs' international harmonization.