Abstract
In order to enable citizens to benefit from technological advances and to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, it is essential to overcome the technological divide between countries. Technology transfer (TT) is the cornerstone of this project and is a standard component in trade and environmental agreements. Yet, no consensus exists as to how TT should be defined, which obligations are comprised in TT and what the role of intellectual property (IP) rights in the promotion of TT should be. The wide variety of legal provisions referring to TT in different legal regimes has only increased the ambiguity of the term TT. Parallel to that, there is a proliferation of bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) containing both IP law as well as environmental law chapters. However, limited systematic research exists regarding TT provisions in FTAs and on how both areas can be connected. The hypothesis of this project is that TT provisions in FTAs may provide alternative solutions to the ineffective application of TT provisions in multilateral trade agreements. This research will conduct an empirical qualitative legal analysis of the FTAs and develop a taxonomy of TT provisions, which will later be compared with TT obligations in international agreements. This research will contribute to the literature by mapping current approaches and providing clarity to the concept of TT and outlining a possible international TT framework.
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