The World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Agreement on the Protection of Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)

The Uruguay Round of trade negotiations that concluded in 1994 reached the Agreement on the Protection of Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). Agreement (TRIPS). The final agreement of this round of negotiations decided to establish the World Trade Organization (WTO) and formulate corresponding rules. That is, WTO member states must abide by all agreements, including the TRIPS Agreement, while simplifying the settlement mechanism for trade disputes among member states. As of January 2002, the WTO has 144 members, and its trade volume accounts for more than 90% of the world's trade volume. More than 30 countries are in negotiations to join.

TRIPS requires all WTO members to provide minimum protection for a wide range of intellectual property rights, including copyrights, patents, trademarks, industrial designs, geographical indications, integrated circuit designs and undisclosed information. In this way, the TRIPS Agreement covers almost all existing international intellectual property agreements, such as the Paris Convention and the Nepal Convention of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and adds some new obligations, such as geographic logos, patents, trade secrets, and government obligations in enforcing intellectual property rights.

The TRIPS Council, which is attended by representatives of all member states, is responsible for managing matters related to the TRIPS Agreement. The TRIPS Council reviews the implementation of all aspects of the TRIPS Agreement in accordance with the authorization of the Agreement itself and the requirements of the biennial WTO Ministerial Conference.

In the implementation of the TRIPS Agreement, the issues that are most likely to cause controversy are the following aspects:

l The goal set forth in Article 7, that is, “Intellectual property rights should contribute to technological "Transfer", whether it can be realized, especially for developing member countries of the WTO.

l There are potential conflicts between Article 8 of the TRIPS Agreement and other provisions of the Agreement. Article 8 allows members, within the framework of the TRIPS Agreement, to take necessary measures to protect public health and prevent the abuse of intellectual property rights; while other articles stipulate the obligation to provide patent protection for medicines and restrictions on the conditions for granting compulsory licenses. (Article 31), the scope of exceptions to patent rights (Article 30), etc.

l Article 39 of the agreement, regarding the protection of experimental data to prevent "unfair commercial use".

l The reasonableness of Article 23 of the Agreement regarding the provision of additional protection for geographical indications of wines and spirits.

l The scope of protection of patent rights for inventions related to living things, such as microorganisms (Article 27 Paragraph 3.(b) of the Agreement) and plant varieties, is consistent with other international conventions, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity. (CBD) consistency issues.

l The costs that many developing countries and least developed countries among the member states have to pay to fulfill their obligations under the TRIPS Agreement regarding the management and enforcement of intellectual property rights.

The TRIPS Agreement came into effect on January 1, 1995. Developed countries that are members of the WTO should implement all provisions of the agreement within one year after the agreement comes into effect; developing countries and countries with economies in transition should implement it before January 1, 2000; if developing countries expand the scope of patent protection to cover New fields such as pharmaceuticals that are not currently protected will receive an additional transition period of 5 years. The agreement also stipulates that the least developed countries (LDCs) should implement the TRIPS Agreement before 2006, but the Doha Ministerial Conference Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health extended the transition period for pharmaceutical protection by 10 years.

When there is a conflict between the interpretation of the TRIPS Agreement and a country’s domestic law implementing the agreement, member states can submit the case to the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Board (DSB) for resolution. So far, 24 cases involving the TRIPS Agreement have started the dispute settlement mechanism, of which: 23 cases were filed by developed country members, and 1 was filed by Brazil; 16 cases involved disputes between developed countries, and 7 cases involved developed countries. Among the disputes filed with developing countries, one was filed by Brazil with the United States.

Of the 24 cases mentioned above, 10 were resolved through negotiation between the parties, 7 were adjudicated by expert panels established in accordance with procedures, and the other 7 are pending.