The global battle over intellectual property the cat-and-mouse game of protection and enforcement

"Abstract This book examines why intellectual property (IP) governance is so contested, emphasizing its deep distributional inequalities, fragmented international forums, and questions of representation and legitimacy. Susan K. Sell argues that power struggles, institutional strategies, and discourse drive the regime's complexity, often working at cross purposes. Using a cat-and-mouse metaphor, she illustrates how stakeholders navigate and manipulate these dynamics to shape global IP policies. Drawing from political economy, law, and sociology, she offers new insights into governance challenges and the forces behind policy shifts. Her analytical framework extends beyond IP, providing a model for understanding other contested issues, including climate change and financial regulation. Keywords intellectual property, governance, distributional inequalities, international forums, representation, legitimacy, power struggles, institutional strategies, policy shifts"--