기후변화 맥락에서 기술이전 논의를 위한 전제들 - 지식재산권, 시장 그리고 법 -

초록

The magnitude of problems caused by climate change is now hardly to ignore, and it is almost impossible to oppose the claim that they have been led by anthropogenic contribution to the global warming. The mankind has to work in various ways to cope with such climate change at an early stage and, to some limited extent, has achieved the necessary goals to realize it. Although numerous methods have been pursued to prevent climate change and agreements between countries or stakeholders have been attempted so far, they have not been neither very visible, nor sufficiently effective. Coping with climate change through environmentally sound technology is also one of the alternatives proposed to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Despite the technological progress, there is considerable –factual and/or legal- obstacles to its dissemination and diffusion. One of them is intellectual property (law), which confers on the right holders the exclusive right to exploit the subject matter. The owner of a technology may control over its use by claiming her/his monopoly right. This article answers questions about how best to address intellectual property issues that appear to impede technology diffusion and discuss how environmentally sound technologies can spread more legitimately. The article, firstly, reveals reveal that intellectual property is principally the legal realm where the basis of the technology/knowledge market and its concrete conditions are determined, and participants transact with each other accordingly. It analyzes then the shortcomings of the current arguments concerning the IP applying to the EST transfer so far. They seem to assume that IP rights are barriers to the technology transfer which should be finally overcome, because the rights overlook the market-related function of IP. However, it could not be appropriate stating that the transfer of environmentally sound technology would be carried out by merely demonstrating (climate) justice and responsibility of developed countries in that the (private) technology developers and related industries practically own technologies, though. Through the discussion here, the article will emphasize the need for a more market-based approach to the international climate change regime in order to make individuals more involved in the climate technologies, and also discuss how to prepare and undertake the action for the dissemination of environmentally sound technologies.

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