What is the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights? TRIPS Review

background

In the mid-1980s, the United States and other developed countries became increasingly dissatisfied with the international intellectual property system managed by the World Intellectual Property Organization and planned to transfer the relevant issues to the framework of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

TRIPS was reached during the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1994. TRIPS was established due to intense lobbying by the United States and support from the European Union, Japan and other developed countries.

After the Uruguay Round, GATT became the predecessor of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Since signing TRIPS is a mandatory requirement for WTO members, any country that wants to join the WTO and thus lower the threshold for international market access must formulate strict intellectual property laws in accordance with the requirements of TRIPS. Therefore, TRIPS is the most important multilateral instrument in the globalization of intellectual property laws.

In addition, unlike other intellectual property agreements, TRIPS has a strong enforcement mechanism. All signatories are bound by the WTO dispute settlement mechanism.

TRIPS requirements

TRIPS requires member states to provide strong protection for intellectual property rights. For example:

• The term of copyright protection must be extended to 50 years after the author's death. For cinematographic and photographic works, the term is fixed at 50 years and must be at least 25 years. (Art. 7(2),(4))

• Copyright must be granted automatically, not based on any "formal procedures" such as registration or renewal procedures.

• Computer programs must be recognized as "literary works" protected under copyright law and be granted the corresponding protection period.

• National exemptions to copyright (such as “fair use” under U.S. law) must follow the three-step test in the Berne Convention.

• Unless the public interest so requires (Art. 27.2 and 27.3), patent rights must be recognized in all fields of technology and be valid for at least 20 years (Art. 33).

• The exclusion of exclusive rights must be limited and provided for by law that the general exploitation of works (Art. 13) and the general exploitation of patents (Art. 30) do not conflict with them.

• Unreasonable discrimination against the legitimate interests of computer program and patent holders is not permitted.

• The legitimate interests of third parties in relation to patent rights must be taken into account (Art 30).

• TRIPS also has a most-favored-nation treatment clause.

Many of TRIPS's copyright-related provisions come from the Berne Convention, while its trademark and patent-related provisions come from the Paris Convention.

Legal status

TRIPS is a multilateral treaty under the World Trade Organization (WTO) system. It was adopted when the WTO was established in 1994.

Like other WTO treaties, countries or individual customs areas that ratify TRIPS must also accept other multilateral agreements within the WTO legal framework, including the Multilateral Agreement on Trade in Goods and the General Agreement on Trade in Services.

dispute

Since the entry into force of TRIPS, developing countries, academia and non-governmental organizations have been increasingly critical of the agreement. Some of these criticisms are directed at the WTO as a whole, and many advocates of trade liberalization believe that TRIPS is a harmful policy. (For example, Jagdish Bhagwati pointed out in "Coping with Globalization" that TRIPS hinders the entry of medicines into developing countries.) The wealth redistribution effect of TRIPS (transferring wealth from developing countries to copyright and patent holders in developed countries) and the artificial scarcity levy imposed on countries that have reduced intellectual property laws are the main starting points of such disputes.