Potential of Treatment Standards of International Investment Law in Protecting Intellectual Property

One of the most important issues that concerns foreign investors when investing in a foreign country is the protection of Intellectual Property Rights. Protecting Intellectual Property Rights through the potential capacities of the foreign Investment Law system is a new issue that industrialized countries' policy-makers have proposed in practice in recent decades, and subsequently the researchers have studied it academically. Investment Law sources do not generally contain detailed regulations about Intellectual Property Rights and support them merely by accepting Intellectual Property Rights as one of the forms of assets. This matter binds the host country to comply with all Treatment Standards concerning intellectual assets of foreign investors. At the same time, due to the type of Intellectual Property, many legal challenges are raised about the way of generalizing Treatment Standards to Intellectual Property Rights. More over, there is no consensus between developed and developing countries about the way of treating foreign investors and the principles and regulations governing this issue. Accordingly, the efforts to adjust a set of regulations on International Investment and the principles of appropriate treatment with foreign investors have not been successful. The lack of a clear legal framework in this era is quite evident. This article criticizes the potential of International Investment Law standards in protecting Intellectual Property Rights, examining the legal obstacles in this regard.