The first edition of "The Global Political Economy of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs)" established itself as one of the leading books to provide a political economy interpretation of the issue of intellectual proaperty and has been widely cited. Since it was published in 2000, there has been much development in the area and intellectual property has continued to rise up the agenda of global politics, reflecting the expanding interest in the issue by policy-makers and advocacy groups, linked to the increasingly fraught politics of the global governance of IPRS. This new edition has been significantly revised and updated to take account of developments at the World Trade Organization and at the World Intellectual Property Organization, and also incorporates the author's recent research on IPRs.The volume has retained the theoretical and analytical elements and offers students and researchers a detailed analysis of how intellectual property is politically constructed, and how it is linked to the economics of knowledge and information in the contemporary global political economy. New issues addressed in the text include: an examination of TRIPs reworked and brought up-to-date; the political economy of capacity building for IPRs; the WIPO Development agenda and the 'resistance' to socialiZation programmes; the AIDs crisis and the Pharmaceutical Industry, linked to issues around the outbreaks of Avian Flu, SARS and other health threats Digital Rights Management; and, the acceleration of the political project of openness. This book will be of interest to students and researchers of intellectual property, law, international political economy, communication studies and international relations.