How Intellectual Property Rights Became A Key Platform Of Free Trade Policy

Intellectual property rights facilitate monopoly.  The enforcement of intellectual property rights has become a critical component of US trade policy.  The protection of monopoly power seems to be inconsistent with free trade policies, but that is only true if one believes that free trade has any real meaning to proponents of free trade. Monopoly would be the preferred industrial structure for most large multinational corporations.  This article provides a description of how the protection of intellectual property rights has emerged as a major component of multilateral trade agreements.