This research strand investigates the relationship between intellectual property (IP) law and global economic inequality, exploring how IP norms, institutions, and doctrines affect the distribution of innovation benefits across societies. Prof Daniel Benoliel examines how IP policy can serve as an instrument for reducing inequality and promoting inclusive and sustainable innovation. The framework integrates perspectives from law, economics, and international human rights law (IHRL).

The research has produced five major projects to date:

• Daniel Benoliel, Peter K. Yu, Francis Gurry, Keun Lee, eds. Intellectual Property, Innovation, and Economic Inequality (Cambridge University Press, 2024)

The book focuses on how intellectual property laws create economic inequality and examines how these laws can be designed to reduce economic inequality and encourage a more equitable and innovative society. The book is based on two international conferences held, one at the Haifa Center for Law and Technology at the University of Haifa (HCLT) and the other at the Oxford Intellectual Property Research Centre at the University of Oxford (OIPRC). These conferences were attended by leading scholars from around the world, including Prof. Joseph E. Stiglitz, former Chief Economist of the World Bank and Nobel Prize laureate in Economics, who served as a keynote speaker at one of the conferences in honor of the book. The contributions of 26 scholars from law and economics enrich the book on ways to deal with one of the most significant global challenges of our time.

• Daniel Benoliel, Economic Inequality in the Age of Human Rights (University of Pennsylvania Journal of
  International Law 45(2): 433, 2023–2024)

This article examines the persistent issue of economic inequality from a human rights perspective, focusing on both horizontal inequalities, linked to factors such as gender, race, and disability, and the inadequate conceptualization of gross economic disparities by legal scholars and policymakers. It argues that economic theory does not convincingly connect inequality to growth, especially beyond the extremities of poverty, and positions international human rights law as a vital alternative for advancing social justice.

• Daniel Benoliel, Intellectual Property Inequality Alleviation (Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property
  24(2), 2025)

This article examines IP and competition law as tools for mitigating economic inequality. It analyzes how the concentration of intellectual property rights, especially patents, creates new forms of market power that transcend traditional monopoly scenarios, worsening disparities by restricting access to innovation and raising barriers to entry. The article critiques the limited corrective power of existing competition law and proposes targeted policy reforms, such as transfer policies, distributive justice, case prioritization, and IP enforcement adjustments, to align IP law with economic parity and equitable innovation.

• Rochelle C. Dreyfuss & Daniel Benoliel, Technological Self-Sufficiency and the Role of Novelty Traps (Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law 24(3): 441, 2022)

This article explores how the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the dangers of technological dependency in developing countries, highlighting their struggles to manufacture essential goods like vaccines. It identifies a “novelty trap” within modern patent law, which prevents local adaptation and diffusion of existing technologies by denying patent protection for incremental innovations. The authors propose a second-tier diffusion patent system to incentivize tailored innovation, promote technological self-sufficiency, and discuss how such reforms align with international intellectual property obligations.

• Daniel Benoliel & Peter K. Yu, Intellectual Property, Innovation, and Economic Inequality (introductory chapter), in Intellectual Property, Innovation, and Global Inequality
  (Cambridge University Press, 2024)

This chapter introduces the growing problem of economic inequality, highlighting its prominence in global and national policy debates and reviewing recent data showing stark disparities in income and wealth. It outlines three major types of inequality, horizontal, vertical, and global, and connects these to issues of access, opportunity, and discrimination. The chapter raises questions about the role that intellectual property law and policy play in worsening or alleviating economic disparity, framing the volume’s goal to explore how IP regulation intersects with innovation and inequality at both national and international levels.