1.5.2. TRIPS

The TRIPS Agreement plays a critical role in facilitating trade in knowledge and creativity, in resolving trade disputes over intellectual property. The Agreement is legal recognition of the significance of links between intellectual property and trade. "Intellectual property" refers to creations of the mind. These creations can take many different forms (see box below)

Different types of IPR

♤ 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.

♤ Trademarks: A trademark is a sign or a combination of signs used to distinguish the goods or services of one enterprise from another.

♤ 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.

♤ Industrial designs: Industrial design is generally understood to refer to the ornamental or aesthetic aspect of an article rather than its technical features. TRIPS Agreement, original or new industrial designs are protected for at least 10 years.

♤ 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 include both products and processes. They are protected for at least 20 years. The TRIPS Agreement describes the minimum rights that a patent owner must enjoy, but also defines the conditions under which exceptions to these rights are permitted.

o Compulsory licences: It allows 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.

♤ Undisclosed information: It 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.

The extent of protection and enforcement of these rights varied widely around the world. The WTO’s TRIPS Agreement is an attempt to narrow the gaps in the way these rights are protected and enforced around the world, and to bring them under common international rules. It establishes minimum standards of protection and enforcement that each government has to give to the intellectual property held by nationals of fellow WTO members.