Expansion of the Concept of Investment The Starting Point of Relationships between Investment Treaties and Intellectual Property Rights

The first step of all matters about the relationships between investment treaties and intellectual property rights starts from the concept of investment. Clarifying this matter that to what extent intellectual property rights constitute the concept of investment in investment treaties is the beginning point of all relevant matters. Although protection for investment and investors existed in other forms, the creation of investment treaties expanded the meaning of investment in international investment law. Investment treaties by evolution in the concept of investment and introducing intellectual property as investment extended the treaty protections to intellectual property rights. By considering intellectual property rights as a kind of investment, host State has to observe treaty standards for intellectual properties of foreign investors. In this article, the evolution which occurred in investment’sconcept is reviewdand then the innovations created by investment treaties in this regard are clarified.