Intellectual property protections in the pharmaceutical and agricultural industries have reshaped global trade networks between the Global North and Global South. The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) standardizes patent protection rules worldwide, however its economic and public health implications remain controversial. Millions of people around the world struggle to access stable, inexpensive healthcare and pay expensive prices for essential foods as a result of TRIPS. Existing research has evaluated TRIPS in terms of its consequences on accessibility to the Global South but limited scholarship examines the TRIPS framework as a reflection of its imperialist inclinations. This thesis questions and investigates the role of TRIPS mechanisms for imperialist tendencies while under the guise of a neutral trade law within the agricultural and pharmaceutical sectors, two essential fields in influencing public health. This research argues that TRIPS is an exploitative mechanism used by the Global North to maintain economic dominance over the Global South through four mechanisms; forced dependency, resource extraction, cultural biases, and legal control. By comparing TRIPS to other imperialist frameworks, this study challenges a supposedly neutral trade agreement and suggests the present intellectual property rules are a flawed mechanism that call for change and democratization.