South Centre - 1997

Preface (excerpt) 

One of the main results of the Uruguay Round negotiations concluded in 1994, with the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO), was a comprehensive international agreement on intellectual property rights (IPRs). The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (‘the TRIPs Agreement’) is the most farreaching international instrument ever negotiated on intellectual property rights. It establishes minimum universal standards concerning patents, copyrights, trademarks, industrial designs, geographical indications, integrated circuits and undisclosed information (trade secrets), supplementing with additional obligations the previously established Paris, Berne, Rome and Washington conventions in their respective fields. This means that the obligations set forth in these conventions apply not only to countries parties to them but to any country which is or becomes a party to the TRIPs Agreement. Under the new rules, therefore, most developing countries are bound to amend their legislation in order to introduce higher standards of protection for intellectual property or extend protection to new areas, including the protection of some living forms.

The standards adopted in the TRIPs Agreement mirror those in force in the industrialized countries, particularly those of the United States. Indeed, the Agreement comprises a major instrument designed to universalize the levels and forms of intellectual property protection existing in the North. Such standards significantly reduce the scope of countries in the South to devise systems of IPRs protection suited to their own conditions and development needs. While, as a result of negotiations, some limited room has been left for modelling IPRs legislation in accordance with different levels of technological and economic development, national laws will have to conform to a number of binding rules, which would be enforceable within the WTO.

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