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The Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) was established through the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The WTO's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is an attempt to narrow the gaps in the way intellectual property rights are protected around the world, and to bring them under common international rules . For developing countries, one of the most important outcomes of the Uruguay Round is the substantial strengthening of the rules based multilateral trading system and its extension to new areas of activity . To facilitate the implementation of the TRIPS Agreement, the Council for TRIPS concluded with WIPO an agreement on cooperation between WIPO and the WTO which provides cooperation in three main areas, namely notification of, access to and translation of national laws and regulations, implementation of procedures for the protection of national emblems, and technical cooperation .
A) Over the course of the past decade, intellectual property rights have come to play an increasingly prominent role in international policy discussions. This renewed interest has followed the growth of intangible goods in international trade and the potential abuse of intellectual property integral to the production of such goods . Both developed and developing countries have introduced legislative reform to tighten protection, and the importance of trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights has been formally recognised in the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations .
Intellectual property rights bear directly on the acquisition of technology as an important catalyst of economic growth . A few years after the development of the programmable computer in the mid 140s, questions were being asked as to how this new form of creative work, the computer program, should be protected against unauthorised copying. Initially, this was not a serious practical problem and the question was largely academic because computers were very expensive to buy, operate and maintain. They required an army of programmers and consumed vast quantities of electricity, being powered by thermionic values. There were very few computers in existence, and large governmental organisations and a small number of private companies were the only bodies with sufficient wealth to be able to justify the large expense associated with them. Another factor was that of cost effectiveness which made computers a viable propositions for only a handful of organisations .
The pervasiveness of computers has brought many problems relating to the legal protection of computer of software . Of course, whether a particular unauthorised use is deemed to be unfair may be a matter of opinion. Many persons and organisations creating computer software consider any use made of their software without permission to be unfair and that all unauthorised use ought to be made illegal. However, intellectual property law, including copyright law, is also concerned with striking a balance between completing interests and with limiting the owners' rights within reasonable bounds and, hence, absolute control and protection is not granted to owners .
Ideas and knowledge are an increasingly important part of trade. Most of the value of new medicines and other high technology products lies in the amount of invention, innovation, research, design and testing involved . Films, music recordings, books, computer software and on-line services are bought and sold because of the information and creativity they contain, not usually because of the plastic, metal or paper used to make them. The extent of protection and enforcement of these rights varied widely around the world; and as intellectual property became more important in trade, these differences became a source of tension in international economic relations .
New internationally-agreed trade rules for intellectual property rights were seen as a way to introduce more order and predicability, and for disputes to be settled more systematically . The 186-4 Uruguay Round achieved that. The WTO's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is an attempt to narrow the gaps in the way these rights are protected around the world, and to bring them under common international rules . When there are trade disputes over intellectual property rights, the WTO's dispute settlement system is now available
B) For developing countries, one of the most important outcomes of the Uruguay Round is the substantial strengthening of the rules based multilateral trading system and its extension to new areas of activity . Existing disciplines have been tightened in a number of areas including those involving the use of subsidies, countervailing and anti-dumping duties and safeguard measures. This will have important implications for developing countries
The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) offers potential benefits for developing countries by creating a framework that is conducive to technology transfer and foreign direct investment . Its main disciplines include non-discrimination (ie. most-favoured-nation and national treatment) and the equal application by all members of minimum standards of protection in relation to all categories of intellectual property rights.
The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) establishes minimum standards of protection for each category of intellectual property rights (IPRs). These standards must be available in the national law of each WTO Member and provided on the basis of most-favoured-nation and national treatment . They incorporate and extend to all WTO Members the substantive obligations of the main WIPO conventions, the Berne and Paris Conventions on respectively copyright and industrial property, with the addition of other obligations on matters where it was thought these Conventions could be complemented. This involves, in particular, setting standards on categories of IPRs where they were lacking (e.g. patents), setting disciplines relating to the enforcement of IPRs, and providing an effective dispute settlement mechanism.
A key feature of the Agreement is that Members are required to provide within their national laws effective procedures and remedies for the enforcement of rights to the holders of those rights, mainly private enterprises . It is, however, recognised that Members are not obliged to create special judicial system for the enforcement of IPRs.
Once the WTO is operational, the number of countries providing intellectual property protection will increase over time. Developed countries have one year to meet their obligations, developing countries have five years and least-developed countries have eleven years, with the possibility of an extension . Special transitional arrangements apply in the situation where a developing country does not presently provide patent protection in a particular area of technology, such as pharmaceutical's or agricultural chemicals.
In fact, adherence to the Paris and Berne Conventions is fairly widespread among developing countries. Many developing countries already provide minimum standards of intellectual property protection on a national treatment basis, although the scope of such protection varies significantly . Potential benefits for developing countries emerging from the Uruguay Round include a framework more conducive to domestic research efforts and to technology transfer and foreign direct investment.
There will, however, be additional administrative burdens of enforcing such rights (specifically dealt with under the TRIPS Agreement), potentially higher royalty payments and adjustment costs for industries which, in the absence of domestic legislation in the area, were producing goods that would be considered as counterfeit in the future . There will also be requirements relating to patents which may well mean an increase in prices of certain goods in some developing countries. Pharmaceutical and agricultural products present examples. These increases are expected to be small, and there are provisions in the Agreement itself to minimise any adverse implications for developing countries.
There are three parts to the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, Including Trade in Counterfeit Goods (TRIPs). Part I sets out general provisions and basic principles, notably a national-treatment commitment under which the nationals of other Members must be given treatment no less favourable than that accorded to a members own nationals with regard to the protection of intellectual property . It also contains a most-favoured-nation clause, a novelty in an international intellectual property agreement, under which any advantage a member gives to the nationals of another country must be extended immediately and unconditionally to the nationals of all other members, even if such treatment is more favourable than that which it gives to its own nationals.
C) The TRIPS agreement looks at different kinds of intellectual property rights and how to protect them. The purpose is to ensure that adequate standards of protection exist in all member countries . Here the starting point is the obligations of the main international agreements of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) that already existed before the WTO was created, namely, the Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (patents, industrial designs, etc) and the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (copyright) . Some areas are not covered by these conventions. In some cases, the standards of protection prescribed were thought inadequate. So the TRIPS agreement adds a significant number of new or higher standards.
To facilitate the implementation of the TRIPS Agreement, the Council for TRIPS concluded with WIPO an agreement on cooperation between WIPO and the WTO, which came into force on 1 January 16 . As explicitly set out in the Preamble to the TRIPS Agreement, the WTO desires a mutually supportive relationship with WIPO. The Agreement provides cooperation in three main areas, namely notification of, access to and translation of national laws and regulations, implementation of procedures for the protection of national emblems, and technical cooperation .
This process involves bringing their laws on copyright, patents, trademarks and other areas of intellectual property into line with the agreement, and providing for effective enforcement of these laws in order to deal with piracy, counterfeit goods and other forms of intellectual property infringements .
The aim is for WIPO and the WTO, together with the countries requesting assistance, and (where appropriate) donor countries, to maximise use of available resources by improved planning and coordination of technical cooperation activities . The forms of technical cooperation that are available include assistance in preparing legislation, training, institution-building, and modernising intellectual property systems and enforcement.
The task of conforming with the TRIPS Agreement is seen as a challenge for developing countries because of the complexities of intellectual property laws and their enforcement. But it also provides an opportunity to use intellectual property protection to accelerate economic, social and cultural development .
At the same time, the two organisations stress that assistance given to other countriesin particular least developed countries, which do not have to meet the year-000 deadlinewill not suffer. The WTO and WIPO renew their commitment to continue to provide technical cooperation to these countries .
The joint initiative will build on the existing cooperation between the two organisations, which has been established since the signing of the WIPO-WTO Agreement in 15 . This provides, among other things, for cooperation in providing legal technical assistance and technical cooperation related to the TRIPS Agreement for developing country members of either of the two organisations.
The 1-member WTO came into being on 1 January 15, at the same time as the TRIPS and other WTO agreements . Developed countries had to conform with the TRIPS provisions by 1 January 16. Developing countries are given an extra four years, until 1 January 000, to comply . Least developed countries have a longer transition period that lasts, in general, until 1 January 006.
The WTO's TRIPS Agreement specifies minimum standards of protection for each of the main categories of intellectual property, building on the main WIPO conventions. It also deals with the effective enforcement of intellectual property rights .
WIPO, which has 171 members, is responsible for international cooperation in promoting intellectual property protection around the world. In particular, it looks after various international conventions, such as the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (patents, industrial designs, etc) and the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (copyright) .
The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and World Trade Organisation (WTO) have launched a new initiative recently, 14 June 001, to help least-developed countries maximise the benefits of intellectual property protection .
At the ceremony held to mark the launch, Dr. Kamil Idris, Director General of WIPO, stated that this joint initiative was simply an expression of commitment to least-developed countries . From integration to participation, then to give these countries national ownership of intellectual property protection, he stressed, was crucial in assisting these countries. It was emphasised that intellectual property was a tool for technological advancement, economic growth and wealth creation for all nations, especially for least-developed countries.
Ambassadors representing least-developed countries welcomed the initiative as further evidence that both organisations are increasingly committed to helping the worlds poorest countries .
The joint initiative builds on existing cooperation between WIPO and WTO and on each organisation's own technical assistance programs . It is also similar to a joint WIPO-WTO project launched in 18 to help all developing countries, particularly those that are not least developed, which had to comply with the TRIPS Agreement by 000.
The technical assistance available under the joint initiative includes cooperation with preparing legislation, training, institution-building, modernising intellectual property systems and enforcement . Of the 4 countries defined by the UN as least developed, 0 are members of the WTO (another six are negotiating WTO membership) and 41 are members of WIPO. All least-developed countries can participate in the technical assistance offered; they do not need to be WIPO or WTO members.
The joint initiative envisages assistance in two phases. In the first phase, two regional workshops will be organised in 00, one for sub-Saharan Africa and Haiti, and the other for the Asia-Pacific region . Officials from these countries will be briefed on the basic concepts, principles and obligations of the TRIPS Agreement. They will also be briefed on the challenges of implementing the agreement. In the second phase, assistance provided will focus on action plans specific to individual countries .
Least-developed countries need a considerable amount of assistance in intellectual property . This new initiative will ensure the most effective use of available resources. It will also ensure technical assistance activities are efficiently planned and closely coordinated between the two organisations.
The Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) was established through the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The WTO's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is an attempt to narrow the gaps in the way intellectual property rights are protected around the world, and to bring them under common international rules . For developing countries, one of the most important outcomes of the Uruguay Round is the substantial strengthening of the rules based multilateral trading system and its extension to new areas of activity . To facilitate the implementation of the TRIPS Agreement, the Council for TRIPS concluded with WIPO an agreement on cooperation between WIPO and the WTO which provides cooperation in three main areas, namely notification of, access to and translation of national laws and regulations, implementation of procedures for the protection of national emblems, and technical cooperation .
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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