TRIP’S
The TRIPS Agreement:
The TRIPS Agreement, which came into
effect on 1 January 1995, is to date the most comprehensive multilateral
agreement on intellectual property.
Overview:
The areas of intellectual property that TRIP’s Agreement covers are:
1.
Copyright and related rights (i.e. the rights of performers, producers of sound
recordings and broadcasting organizations);
Features of the Agreement:
Standards.
·
In respect of each of the main areas of intellectual property covered by
the TRIPS Agreement, the Agreement sets out the minimum standards of protection
to be provided by each Member.
·
Each of the main elements of
protection is defined, namely the subject-matter to be protected, the rights to
be conferred and permissible exceptions to those rights, and the minimum
duration of protection.
·
The Agreement sets these standards
by requiring, first, that the substantive obligations of the main conventions of the WIPO, the Paris Convention
for the Protection of Industrial Property (Paris Convention) and the Berne Convention for the Protection of
Literary and Artistic Works (Berne Convention) in their most recent versions,
must be complied with.
·
With the exception of the
provisions of the Berne Convention on moral rights, all the main substantive provisions of
these conventions are incorporated
by reference and thus become obligations under the TRIPS Agreement between
TRIPS Member countries.
·
The relevant provisions are to be found in Articles 2.1 and 9.1 of the
TRIPS Agreement, which relate, respectively, to the Paris Convention and to the
Berne Convention. Secondly, the TRIPS Agreement adds a substantial number of
additional obligations on matters where the pre-existing conventions are silent
or were seen as being inadequate. The TRIPS
Agreement is thus sometimes referred
to as a Berne and Paris-plus agreement.
Enforcement.
·
The second main set of provisions deals with domestic procedures and remedies for the enforcement of
intellectual property rights.
·
The Agreement lays down certain
general principles applicable to all IPR enforcement procedures. In
addition, it contains provisions on civil and administrative procedures and
remedies, provisional measures, special requirements amount of detail, the procedures and remedies
that must be available so that right holders can effectively enforce their
rights.
Dispute settlement. The Agreement makes disputes between WTO Members about the respect of
the TRIPS obligations subject to the WTO's dispute settlement procedures.
Principles :-
The Agreement provides for
certain basic principles, such as national
and most-favoured-nation treatment, and some general rules to ensure that procedural difficulties in
acquiring or maintaining IPRs do not
nullify the substantive benefits that should flow from the Agreement. The
obligations under the Agreement will apply equally to all Member countries, but
developing countries will have a longer period to phase them in. Special
transition arrangements operate in the situation where a developing country does
not presently provide product patent protection in the area of pharmaceuticals.
The TRIPS Agreement is a
minimum standards agreement, which allows Members to provide more extensive
protection of intellectual property if they so wish. Members are left free to
determine the appropriate method of implementing the provisions of the
Agreement within their own legal system and practice.
Goals :-
The general goals of the TRIPS
Agreement are contained in the Preamble of the Agreement, which reproduces the
basic Uruguay Round negotiating objectives established in the TRIPS area by the
1986 Punta del Este Declaration and the 1988/89 Mid-Term Review. These
objectives include the reduction of distortions and impediments to
international trade, promotion of effective and adequate protection of
intellectual property rights, and ensuring that measures and procedures to
enforce intellectual property rights do not themselves become barriers to
legitimate trade. These objectives should be read in conjunction with Article
7, entitled “Objectives”, according to which the protection and enforcement of
intellectual property rights should 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. Article 8, entitled “Principles”, recognizes the rights
of Members to adopt measures for public health and other public interest
reasons and to prevent the abuse of intellectual property rights, provided that
such measures are consistent with the provisions of the TRIPS Agreement.
References:
·
Wto.org
·
Books.google.co.in
·
En.wikipedia.org