The paper explores the historical development of the global IPR framework – from the Paris Convention of 1883 and the Berne Convention of 1986 all up until the TRIPS (Trade-Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Agreement of WTO (World Trade Organization) was established in 1995. IPRs include copyrights, patents and trademarks. The paper explores the “temporal dimensions” of politics: a) how previous choices and events have affected future options by creating robustness and lock-ins that exclude certain choices and allow others (path dependency); and b) how periods of contingency during which the usual constraints on action are lifted or eased have enhanced the room for agency and major change (critical junctures). The paper analyzes the interaction between agency, timing of events, political context and institutional properties in order to explain the development of the global IPR-framework.
