ROBERT M. SHERWOOD
ROBERT M. SHERWOOD, an author and consultant, has
devoted 20 years to researching the role of intellectual property in developing
countries. He is also advancing
research on the relation of judicial system performance to economic development.
Building from experience as an international
corporate lawyer, he conducted in-country diagnoses of intellectual property
systems in eleven Latin American countries for the Inter-American Development
Bank. This led to creation of a
numerical system that permits detailed assessment and comparison of national
intellectual property systems from the perspective of private investment, both
foreign and national. This approach to
system analysis – published in English, Portuguese and Spanish - has been
applied thus far to 18 developing countries.
It has become a contribution to the New Institutional Economics
literature. [Available from this site.]
Supported by a private group of American companies,
he has visited Brazil
four times each year since 1986 to investigate the influence of intellectual
property on a broad range of activities there.
He has conferred with Brazilian government officials, congressmen,
journalists, judges, scholars and business leaders to present his
findings. His first book, Intellectual
Property and Economic Development, (Westview, 1990, now out of print but
available at this site) was published in Portuguese by the University
of Sao Paulo and in Spanish by
Editorial Heliasta in Argentina. Recently, his activity in Brazil
has focussed on improving administration of the Brazilian patent office,
upgrading existing legislation, educating judges in the concepts of
intellectual property, and teaching research scientists about the role of IP
for commercializing their inventions.
He has consulted for the World Bank on matters of
intellectual property in relation to investment promotion, agricultural
research, and the role of intellectual property in knowledge-based
economies. Supported by a group of
private companies, he has since 1987 visited over 80 World Bank officials, many
repeatedly, to help them appreciate the positive role robust intellectual
property can play in the development process.
He helped organize several internal Bank seminars regarding intellectual
property, commented on internally generated papers, and critiqued chapters and
working papers for the World Development Report and the Global Development
Finance Report.
His commissioned writings include co-authorship with
Carlos Primo Braga, a World Bank economist, of a road map for negotiating
intellectual property arrangements in the Western
Hemisphere. He assessed the
implications of the TRIPS Agreement for developing countries under commission
from the World Intellectual Property Organization, and wrote an assessment of
the Canadian-Mexican-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA) for the Fraser
Institute. His numerous other articles
and papers explore a wide range of topics related to intellectual property in
the development process. With two
Brazilian co-authors, he has examined the functioning of developing country
patent offices from the perspective of local inventors, pointing toward
elements of an emerging global patent system.
At his suggestion, the World Bank commissioned Prof.
Edwin Mansfield in 1991 to conduct two empirical studies (published in 1994/5)
of the positive role of intellectual property in fostering investment,
licensing and joint venturing in developing countries. He worked with Mansfield
in the design of the research.
His writings on judicial reform include a seminal
paper [available on this site] co-authored with Geoffrey Shepherd of the World
Bank and Celso Marcos de Souza of Brazil’s
Foreign Relations Ministry. It has led
to studies that measured the negative impact of poor judicial performance on
the national economies in Brazil,
Argentina, Canada,
Peru, Philippines,
Portugal and Spain. The central concept of this paper was
adopted by the Australian Law Reform Commission as the methodology for its
mid-1990s comprehensive assessment of the Federal Judiciary. Thus far, his efforts have drawn
approximately $750,000 in grants to this research from private foundations, the
World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. A five-European nation study is now in preparation. The findings to date have helped convert
judicial reform into a pocketbook issue for elite groups in several
countries. This research makes no
mention of intellectual property. Still,
the effect of improving judicial system performance will be to upgrade judicial
support for IP and many other activities as well.
Further research in Brazil
and Argentina
has gained insight into the thinking of judges there regarding judicial system
improvement. Further research is now
being proposed to investigate the preference, prominent in many countries, for
conducting business transactions primarily within social trust groups rather
than with strangers. Transacting within
social trust groups suppresses opportunistic behavior and resolves disputes through
reliance on social pressure. In
contrast, willingness to rely on the judicial system encourages dealing with
strangers. This in turn encourages new
entrants and achieves better allocation of economic resources. Measurement of
the economic consequences of the two options is being sought.
He served as general counsel for Latin America for a
major American company from 1972 to 1984, based in Miami,
with responsibilities for public affairs, legal affairs and business
planning. During this period he was
active in leadership of the Council of the Americas,
organizing three membership surveys regarding the impact of the debt crisis on
corporate operations throughout Latin America. He represented company interests in Washington
D.C. in 1984 and1985. He organized an informal advisory group at
the request of the Office of the United States Trade Representative which
provided input regarding negotiation of the TRIPS Agreement during the Uruguay
Round.
He has delivered lectures at Fletcher School of Law
and Diplomacy, Georgetown University, George Mason University School of Law,
University of Miami Law School, Southern Methodist University, Cardozo Law
School, Franklin Pierce Law Center, Akron University School of Law, University
of Toronto, American University, and overseas in Brazil, Argentina, Spain,
Pakistan, Jordan, South Africa, and elsewhere.
He is a graduate of Harvard
College, Columbia
University, and Harvard
Law School. Today he lives in Winchester,
Virginia, outside Washington,
D. C. by the Shenandoah Valley.
Some of his many writings are available at this web
site. A more extensive list of his
writings is available on request.
September
2008
Robert M. Sherwood may be reached at:
300 Westminster-Canterbury Drive
Apartment 525
Winchester, VA 22603
Phone: 540 450-3257
E-mail: bobsherwood@ymail.com
