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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia TRIPS redirects here. For the new microprocessor design, see TRIPS architecture. For the German racing driver, see Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips The Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is an international agreement administered by the World Trade Organization (WTO) that sets down minimum standards for many forms of intellectual property (IP) regulation as applied to nationals of other WTO Members.[1] It was negotiated at the end of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1994. The TRIPS agreement introduced intellectual property law into the international trading system for the first time and remains the most comprehensive international agreement on intellectual property to date. In 2001, developing countries, concerned that developed countries were insisting on an overly narrow reading of TRIPS, initiated a round of talks that resulted in the Doha Declaration. The Doha declaration is a WTO statement that clarifies the scope of TRIPS, stating for example that TRIPS can and should be interpreted in light of the goal "to promote access to medicines for all." Specifically, TRIPS contains requirements that nations' laws must meet for copyright rights, including the rights of performers, producers of sound recordings and broadcasting organizations; geographical indications, including appellations of origin; industrial designs; integrated circuit layout-designs; patents; monopolies for the developers of new plant varieties; trademarks; trade dress; and undisclosed or confidential information. TRIPS also specifies enforcement procedures, remedies, and dispute resolution procedures. Protection and enforcement of all intellectual property rights shall meet the objectives to contribute to the promotion of technological innovation and to the transfer and dissemination of technology, to the mutual advantage of producers and users of technological knowledge and in a manner conducive to social and economic welfare, and to a balance of rights and obligations.
Contents
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1 Background and history 2 The requirements of TRIPS o 2.1 Access to essential medicines o 2.2 Software and business method patents 3 Implementation in developing countries 4 Post-TRIPS expansion
5 Panel reports 6 Criticism 7 See also o 7.1 Related treaties and laws o 7.2 Related organizations o 7.3 Related topics 8 References 9 External links
Copyright terms must extend to 50 years after the death of the author.(Art. 12 and 14)[1][not in citation given]
Copyright must be granted automatically, and not based upon any "formality," such as registrations or systems of renewal. Computer programs must be regarded as "literary works" under copyright law and receive the same terms of protection. National exceptions to copyright (such as "fair use" in the United States) are constrained by the Berne three-step test Patents must be granted in all "fields of technology," although exceptions for certain public interests are allowed (Art. 27.2 and 27.3)[2] and must be enforceable for at least 20 years (Art 33). Exceptions to exclusive rights must be limited, provided that a normal exploitation of the work (Art. 13) and normal exploitation of the patent (Art 30) is not in conflict. No unreasonable prejudice to the legitimate interests of the right holders of computer programs and patents is allowed. Legitimate interests of third parties have to be taken into account by patent rights (Art 30). In each state, intellectual property laws may not offer any benefits to local citizens which are not available to citizens of other TRIPS signatories under the principle of national treatment (with certain limited exceptions, Art. 3 and 5).[3] TRIPS also has a most favored nation clause.
Many of the TRIPS provisions on copyright were copied from the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and many of its trademark and patent provisions were modeled on the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property.
Main article: Software patents under TRIPs Agreement Another controversy has been over the TRIPS Article 27 requirements for patentability "in all fields of technology", and whether or not this necessitates the granting of software and business method patents.
The creation of anti-circumvention laws to protect Digital Rights Management systems. This was achieved through the 1996 World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty (WIPO Treaty) and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty.
The desire to further restrict the possibility of compulsory licenses for patents has led to provisions in recent bilateral US trade agreements. It is one thing for states to have intellectual property laws on their statutes, and another for governments to enforce them aggressively. This distinction has led to provisions in bilateral agreements, as well as proposals for WIPO and European Union rules on intellectual property enforcement. The 2001 EU Copyright Directive was to implement the 1996 WIPO Copyright Treaty. The wording of Trips 27 of non-discrimination is used to justify an extension of the patent system. The campaign for the creation of a WIPO Broadcasting Treaty that would give broadcasters (and possibly webcasters) exclusive rights over the copies of works they have distributed.
2005 Panel Report [3]: o European Communities - Protection of Trademarks and Geographical Indications for Agricultural Products and Foodstuffs. 2000 Panel Report [4], Part 2 [5] and 2000 Appellate Body Report [6]: o Canada - Term of Patent Protection. 2000 Panel Report, Part 1 [7] and Part 2 [8]: o United States - Section 110(5) of the US Copyright Act. 2000 Panel Report [9]: o Canada - Patent Protection of Pharmaceutical Products. 2001 Panel Report [10] and 2002 Appellate Body Report [11]: o United States - Section 211 Omnibus Appropriations Act of 1998. 1998 Panel Report [12]: o India - Patent Protection for Pharmaceutical and Agricultural Chemical Products. 1998 Panel Report [13]: o Indonesia - Certain Measures Affecting the Automobile Industry.
[edit] Criticism
Since TRIPS came into force it has received a growing level of criticism from developing countries, academics, and Non-governmental organizations. Some of this criticism is against the WTO as a whole, but many advocates of trade liberalization also regard TRIPS as bad policy (see, for example, Jagdish Bhagwati's In Defense of Globalization for a discussion on the detrimental effect of TRIPS on access to medicines in developing countries). TRIPS' wealth
redistribution effects (moving money from people in developing countries to copyright and patent owners in developed countries) and its imposition of artificial scarcity on the citizens of countries that would otherwise have had weaker intellectual property laws, are a common basis for such criticisms. Peter Drahos writes that "It was an accepted part of international commercial morality that states would design domestic intellectual property law to suit their own economic circumstances. States made sure that existing international intellectual property agreements gave them plenty of latitude to do so."[10] Daniele Archibugi and Andrea Filippetti[11] argue that the importance of TRIPS in the process of generation and diffusion of knowledge and innovation has been overestimated by both their supporters and their detractors. Claude Henry and Joseph E. Stiglitz[12] argue that the current intellectual property global regime may impede both innovation and dissemination, and suggest reforms to foster the global dissemination of innovation and sustainable development.
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) EU Directive on the enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPRED) Patent Law Treaty (PLT) Substantive Patent Law Treaty (SPLT) Uruguay Round Agreement Act of the United States (URAA)
Confusing similarity Geographical Indication Intellectual property in the People's Republic of China List of international trade topics List of parties to international copyright agreements World Trade Organization Dispute 160
[edit] References
1. ^ See TRIPS Art. 1(3).
2. ^ World Trade Organization, "Part II Standards concerning the availability, scope and use of Intellectual Property Rights; Sections 5 and 6", Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights 3. ^ World Trade Organization, "Part I General Provisions and Basic Principles", Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights 4. ^ World Trade Organization (1 September 2003), Implementation of paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and public health 5. ^ World Trade Organisation, IP http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/trips_e/tripfq_e.htm 6. ^ IP Justice policy paper for the WIPO development agenda, IP Justice 7. ^ Musungu, Sisule F.; Oh, Cecilia (August 2005), The use of flexibilities in TRIPS by developing countries: can they promote access to medicines?, Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public Health (CIPIH) 8. ^ Finger, J. Michael (2000). "The WTO's special burden on less developed countries" (PDF). Cato Journal 19 (3). 9. ^ World Trade Organization (2005). "Annual Report 2005". 10. ^ Drahos with Braithwaite, Information Feudalism, New Press 2002, p38 11. ^ Archibugi, D. and Filippetti, A. (2010) 'The globalization of intellectual property rights: Four learned lessons and four thesis', Journal of Global Policy, 1: 137-49. 12. ^ Henry, C. and Stiglitz, J. (2010) 'Intellectual Property, Dissemination of Innovation and Sustainable Development', Journal of Global Policy, 1: 237-51. 1. Braithwaite and Drahos, Global Business Regulation, Cambridge University Press, 2000 2. Westkamp, 'TRIPS Principles, Reciprocity and the Creation of Sui-Generis-Type Intellectual Property Rights for New Forms of Technology' [2003] 6(6) The Journal of World Intellectual Property 827-859, ISSN: 1422-2213
TRIPS agreement (PDF version) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (html version) World Trade Organization links o World Trade Organization - Official Text o World Trade Organization - TRIPs gateway Audio presentation by Professor Susan Sell, George Washington University, on intellectual property rights in the global context.