Past ContestS
Fundamentals of Freedom: 2010 Asia Essay Contest
The Fund for American Studies Announces Essay Contest Winners!
For the second annual TFAS Asia Essay Contest, contestants were asked to address the following questions on the topic of Intellectual Property RIghts:
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) are the rights that are given to owners or creators of intangible products (inventions, new discoveries, music, literature, etc.) through the use of patents, copyrights and trademarks.
Without such rights or protections, there would be little incentive for owners to continue to invent new products or improve existing ones. In addition, consumers would have no means to ensure the quality and authenticity of the products they purchase.
The level of IPR enforcement in many countries varies substantially. Generally speaking, it is often the developing countries with weaker IPR enforcement. As a result, citizens of these countries often have better access to cheaper imitations (through counterfeiting or piracy) however, there is also less incentive then for the international community to invest in these countries without a guarantee the integrity of their products will be protected.
How important are intellectual property rights? Do they play a role in economic development and if so, what kind of role? Do you think it is a fair criticism that developing countries generally do not provide enough legal protection or enforcement of IPR? Are citizens of developing countries harmed by the lack of IPR protection and if so, how? Use an example from your own country or another country in Asia to illustrate your argument.
To view bios of the members of the panel of judges, please click here.
We received many submissions from throughout Asia. The winning essays are featured below. Congratulations to the winners!
First Place
Dilemma of Developing Countries
Yung Terd Lu, Malaysia
Second Place
The Need for a Culture that Values IP
Benjamin Lelis, Philippines
Third Place
Relevance of Intellectual Property Rights for Less Developed Countries
Shristi Khadka, Nepal
Fundamentals of Freedom: 2009 Asia Essay Contest
The Fund for American Studies Announces Essay Contest Winners!
The Fund for American Studies recently concluded its first ever Fundamentals of Freedom: Asia Essay Contest. The essay topic focused on the quote below from Hernando de Soto’s
*
book, The Mystery of Capital:Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else:
“Imagine a country where nobody can identify who owns what, addresses cannot be easily verified, people cannot be made to pay their debts, resources cannot conveniently be turned into money, ownership cannot be divided into shares, descriptions of assets are not standardized and cannot be easily compared, and the rules that govern property vary from neighborhood to neighborhood or even from street to street.”
Students and young professionals in Asia were asked to think critically about the development of property rights in the region using their country or another country in Asia as a case study.
We received many submissions from nine countries in Asia including Vietnam, India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. The winning authors demonstrated a strong understanding of De Soto’s theory and the development of property rights in Asia using valuable country examples to demonstrate their points. The winning essays are featured below with a tie for third place. Congratulations to the winners!
To view bios of the members of the panel of judges, please click here.
*Born in 1941,Hernando de Soto is a Peruvian economist and president of Peru’s Institute for Liberty and Democracy in Lima. An author and an activist, Mr. de Soto is a pioneer in the field of international development, advocating for the implementation of property rights in developing countries around the world, to empower the poor. He has published two books: The Other Path (1986) and The Mystery of Capital (2000), both of which are international bestsellers.
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