The Development Agenda is the result of the recent campaign to ensure that the intellectual property treaty regime permits -- and, indeed, empowers -- developing countries to tailor their intellectual property laws as they deem necessary to promote development and serve the welfare of their citizens. The Agenda's adoption by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in September 2007 was an historic watershed for that UN agency, which has long viewed its mandate as the unabashed promotion of greater intellectual property rights throughout the world.

Written by some of the world's leading IP scholars, Neil W. Netanel has edited this compilation of articles in order to examine the Development Agenda and the broader issues it touches upon. Contributors include leading scholars from various disciplines, including economics, political science, and law, and from countries at various stages of development, including China, India, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Nigeria, Egypt, and Israel, in addition to the US, Canada, and EU. They also include experts from NGO-think tanks, UNCTAD, and the two Brazilian diplomats who were the leading advocates of the Development Agenda's adoption.