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The TRIPS Agreement is the most comprehensive multilateral agreement on intellectual property. It establishes minimum standards of protection for copyrights, trademarks, geographical indications, industrial designs, patents, layout designs of integrated circuits, and undisclosed information. It also sets procedures for enforcing intellectual property rights domestically and settling disputes between WTO members.

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250 views

Wto Ip

The TRIPS Agreement is the most comprehensive multilateral agreement on intellectual property. It establishes minimum standards of protection for copyrights, trademarks, geographical indications, industrial designs, patents, layout designs of integrated circuits, and undisclosed information. It also sets procedures for enforcing intellectual property rights domestically and settling disputes between WTO members.

Uploaded by

Tuki Das
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Intellectual Property 

TRIPS — Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights


• The WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual
Property Rights (TRIPS) is the most comprehensive
multilateral agreement on intellectual property (IP)
• It plays a central role in facilitating trade in knowledge and
creativity, in resolving trade disputes over
• It frames the IP system in terms of innovation, technology
transfer and public welfare
• The Agreement is a legal recognition of the significance of
links between IP and trade and the need for a balanced IP
system.
Intellectual property rights(IPR)
IPR are the rights given to persons over the creations of their minds. They usually
give the creator an exclusive right over the use of his/her creation for a certain
period of time
IPR are divided into two main areas:
(i) Copyright and rights related to copyright
• The rights of authors of literary and artistic works (such as books and other
writings, musical compositions, paintings, sculpture, computer programs and
films) are protected by copyright, for a minimum period of 50 years after the
death of the author.
• Also protected through copyright and related rights are the rights of performers
(e.g. actors, singers and musicians), producers of phonograms (sound recordings)
and broadcasting organizations. The main social purpose of protection of
copyright and related rights is to encourage and reward creative work
Contd....
(ii) Industrial property...Industrial property can usefully be divided into two main areas:

• One area is the protection of distinctive signs, in particular trademarks (which distinguish the goods or services
of one undertaking from those of other undertakings) and geographical indications (which identify a good as
originating in a place where a given characteristic of the good is essentially attributable to its geographical
origin)

The protection of such distinctive signs aims to stimulate and ensure fair competition and to protect
consumers, by enabling them to make informed choices between various goods and services. The protection
may last indefinitely, provided the sign in question continues to be distinctive

• Other types of industrial property are protected primarily to stimulate innovation, design and the creation of
technology. In this category fall inventions (protected by patents), industrial designs and trade secrets.

The social purpose is to provide protection for the results of investment in the development of new technology,
thus giving the incentive and means to finance research and development activities.

The protection is usually given for a finite term (typically 20 years in the case of patents).
TRIPS Agreement
The TRIPS Agreement covers five broad areas:

•   Application of general provisions and basic principles of the


multilateral trading system to international intellectual property
•   Minimum standards of protection for intellectual property rights
that members should provide
•   Procedures members should provide for the enforcement of those
rights in their own territories
•   Settle disputes on intellectual property between members of the
WTO
•   Special transitional arrangements for the implementation of TRIPS
provisions.
Copyright
• Copyright usually refers to the rights of authors in their literary and artistic works. In a
wider sense, copyright also includes ‘related rights’: the rights of performers, producers of
phonograms and broadcasting organizations.
• The TRIPS Agreement ensures that computer programs will be protected as literary works
under the Berne Convention and outlines how databases must be protected under
copyright;
• It also expands international copyright rules to cover rental rights.
• Authors of computer programs and producers of sound recordings must have the right to
prohibit the commercial rental of their works to the public
• A similar exclusive right applies to films where commercial rental has led to widespread
copying, affecting copyright-owners’ potential earnings from their films; and
• It says performers must also have the right to prevent unauthorized recording,
reproduction and broadcast of live performances (bootlegging) for no less than 50 years.
• Producers of sound recordings must have the right to prevent the unauthorized
reproduction of recordings for a period of 50 years.
Trademarks
• A trademark is a sign or a combination of signs
used to distinguish the goods or services of one
enterprise from another.
• The TRIPS Agreement defines what types of
signs must be eligible for protection as
trademarks, and what the minimum rights
conferred on their owners must be
• It says that service marks must be protected in
the same way as trademarks used for goods.
Geographical indications
• A name or indication associated with a place is sometimes used to identify a product. This “geographical
indication” does not only say where the product comes from. More importantly, it identifies the
product’s special characteristics, which are the result of the product’s origins

• Well-known examples include “Champagne”, “Scotch Whiskey”, “Tequila”, "Darjeeling" and “Roquefort”
cheese

• Using the indication when the product was made elsewhere or when it does not have the usual
characteristics can mislead consumers, and can lead to unfair competition. The TRIPS Agreement says
members have to provide ways to prevent such misuse of geographical indications

• For wines and spirits, the TRIPS Agreement provides higher levels of protection, i.e. even where there is
no danger of the public being misled

• The TRIPS Agreement provides for further negotiations in the WTO to establish a multilateral system of
notification and registration of geographical indications for wines, which was subsequently extended to
include spirits. The question of whether to negotiate extending this higher level of protection beyond
wines and spirits is also being discussed in the WTO .
Industrial designs
• Industrial design refers to the ornamental or aesthetic
aspect of an article rather than its technical features.
• Under the TRIPS Agreement, original or new
industrial designs must be protected for at least 10
years
• Owners of protected designs must be able to prevent
the manufacture, sale or importation of articles
bearing or embodying a design which is a copy or
substantially a copy of the protected design for
commercial purposes
Patents
•  The TRIPS Agreement says patent protection must be available for eligible inventions in all
fields of technology that are new, involve an inventive step and can be industrially applied

• Eligible inventions includee both products and processes. They must be protected for at least
20 years. However, governments can refuse to issue a patent for an invention if its sale needs to
be prohibited for reasons of public order or morality. They can also exclude diagnostic,
therapeutic and surgical methods, plants and animals (other than micro-organisms), and
biological processes for their production (other than microbiological processes) from patent
protection.

• Plant varieties, must be protectable by patents or by a special system (such as the breeder’s
rights provided in the conventions of UPOV — the International Union for the Protection of
New Varieties of Plants
The Agreement permits governments to issue “compulsory licences”, which allow a competitor to
produce the product or use the process under licence without the owner's consent. But this can
only be done under specific conditions set out in the TRIPS Agreement aimed at safeguarding
the interests of the patent-holder.
Layout designs of integrated circuits
• An integrated circuit is an electronic device that incorporates individual
electronic components within a single ‘integrated’ platform configured to
perform an electronic function

• The protection of layout designs of integrated circuits in the TRIPS


Agreement is provided through the incorporation of the Washington Treaty
on Intellectual Property in Respect of Integrated Circuits, a treaty that was
concluded under the World Intellectual Property Organization in 1989, but
has not yet entered into force. The TRIPS Agreement adds a number of
provisions: for example, protection must be available for at least 10 years

• In practice, layout designs of integrated circuits are commonly protected


under patents.
Undisclosed information
• Undisclosed information includes trade secrets and test data
• Trade secrets must be protected against unauthorized use,
including through breach of contract or confidence or other acts
contrary to honest commercial practices
• Such protection is conditional upon the information being secret,
having commercial value and reasonable steps having  been taken
by its owner to keep the information secret.
• Test data submitted to governments in order to obtain marketing
approval for new pharmaceutical or agricultural chemicals must
also be protected against unfair commercial use and disclosure
• Extended transition periods continue to apply to least developed
country members

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