Neoliberal IP orthodoxy was dictated by corporate lobbyists, not market theorists

Evidence

The NIEO had made the radical claim that much of the world’s knowledge was an inalienable part of the common heritage of mankind. Corporate advocates of IP responded with a claim that was equally radical and equally at odds with mainstream and neoliberal economic discourse: that IP rights were simple analogues of other property rights. Vulgarized economic discourse was used to serve private interests. The only academic economist with a starring role in the global IP story, Jacques Gorlin, by his own confession, acted as a lobbyist representing a client and relied on no sophisticated argumentation. … Under TRIPS, Hayek’s sea of ignorance was parceled off into real estate. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 200

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Hayek’s ‘sea of ignorance’/price system as knowledge-distribution idea from his work on spontaneous order and dispersed knowledge. — connects to: Neoliberal economists were not united behind aggressive intellectual property rights — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 165; Even hardcore IP advocates conceded patents chiefly protect monopolies — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 193; Pro-corporate IP advocacy replaced competition discourse with protection and exclusion language — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 198 (+3 more)
• DEFINE: Sharply defines TRIPS as a political document, not an economic or legal one, per its own lobbyist author.
• SEED: Angle: how the TRIPS regime was built without the theoretical architects of the knowledge economy, contradicting the technocratic-policy ideal.

Broader Connections

• Neoliberalism emerged from practical business advocacy, not abstract theory #corroborates (0.90) — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists, 119
• IP enclosure proceeded without consulting neoliberal knowledge-economy theorists. #expands (0.85) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 200
• A rival ‘capture’ model explains neoliberalism through lobbying power, not ideas #corroborates (0.80) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 203