As countries move up the income and technology ladder, they will gain more from IPRs. These are necessary for licensing and will benefit home entrepreneurs and innovators. There may still be a case for subsidizing the cost of acquiring foreign
knowledge through licensing. Based on the experience of Asian economies, developing countries should adopt standards for patentability, novelty, and utility that are stricter (i.e., they raise a higher bar to patenting) than those found in the US and EU members. This is currently not constrained by TRIPS, which does not specify any of the substantive criteria on the basis of which IPRs are awarded. Upper-middle-income countries should adopt the full TRIPs package and would benefit less from subsidy schemes to lower the price of technology.