If a picture tells a thousand words, this chart, which graphically demonstrates global royalty flows, instantly demonstrates why the development agenda deserves our support and why Canada – alongside virtually every other country – will continue to face enormous pressure from the U.S. on IP policy. Note in particular the shrinking of Canada, South America, Africa, most of Asia, and Australia, all of which represents significant outflows of royalty fees.
Why the WIPO Development Agenda Matters
January 24, 2007
Share this post
4 Comments

Law Bytes
Episode 257: Lisa Given on What Canada Can Learn From Australia’s Youth Social Media Ban
byMichael Geist

February 9, 2026
Michael Geist
Episode 256: Jennifer Quaid on Taking On Big Tech With the Competition Act's Private Right of Access
February 2, 2026
Michael Geist
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 255: Grappling with Grok – Heidi Tworek on the Limits of Canadian Law
January 26, 2026
Michael Geist
December 22, 2025
Michael Geist
December 8, 2025
Michael Geist
Search Results placeholder
Recent Posts
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 258: Jaxson Khan With an Insider Perspective on AI Policy Development in Canada
Time for the Government to Fix Its Political Party Privacy Blunder: Kill Bill C-4’s Disastrous Privacy Rules
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 257: Lisa Given on What Canada Can Learn From Australia’s Youth Social Media Ban
Court Ordered Social Media Site Blocking Coming to Canada?: Trojan Horse Online Harms Bill Clears Senate Committee Review
An Illusion of Consensus: What the Government Isn’t Saying About the Results of its AI Consultation

Also interesting to note the similarity it has with their map of wealth distribution. They are almost identical. [ link ]
Fat cats
A funny – indeed ‘exploding’ – parallel to the fact that the USA and Japan are the only 2 Global Economic 8 nations that have governed their participation in the WCT and WPPT copyright treaties into effect/force. Wonder if taking the lions’ share of world royalties has had any ‘sizable’ impact on Americans becoming known for their high levels of obesity (/population), and Japanese for their Sumo largess… At least seems evident in observing Hollywood’s FAT cats!
Canada’s delegation to WIPO
I am wondering if you have specific advise on how Canadians can try to reach the government delegation to WIPO. I doubt many Canadians would recognize how Canada presents itself Internationally on issues such as this.
[ link ]
per capita
Would have been nice to see a map with per-capita data instead, it would probably paint a very different picture (with Luxembourg coming first..)