Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights Agreement

Article 14(2) requires members to grant producers of phonograms an exclusive right of reproduction. In addition, in accordance with Article 14(4), they must grant at least producers of phonograms an exclusive rental right. The provisions on rental rights shall also apply to all other holders of phonogram rights, as provided for in national law. This right has the same scope as the right to rent computer programs. It is therefore not subject to the depreciation test as in the case of cinematographic works. However, it is limited by a so-called grandfather clause, according to which a member born on 15 April 1994, that is to say, on the date of signature of the Marrakesh Agreement, a system of equitable remuneration of rightholders for the rental of phonograms may maintain such a system, provided that the commercial rental of phonograms does not result in a significant infringement of the exclusive reproduction rights of rightholders. As in the main existing intellectual property conventions, the fundamental obligation of each member country is to accord the treatment of intellectual property provided for in the convention to persons of other members. Article 1.3 defines who these persons are. Such persons are called nationals, but include natural or legal persons who have close links with other members without necessarily being nationals of them.

The criteria for determining which persons should therefore benefit from the treatment provided for in the Agreement are those set out for that purpose in the main existing WIPO conventions on intellectual property, which are of course applied to all WTO Members, whether or not they are Parties to these Agreements. These conventions are the Paris Convention, the Berne Convention, the International Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations (Rome Convention) and the Treaty on Intellectual Property in Integrated Circuits (IPIC Treaty). The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is an international agreement between all member states of the World Trade Organization (WTO). It establishes minimum standards for the regulation of various forms of intellectual property (IP) by national governments, as applied to nationals of other WTO member states. [3] The TRIPS Agreement was negotiated at the end of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) between 1989 and 1990[4] and is administered by the WTO. At the 2001 WTO Ministerial Conference in Doha, the least developed countries had an additional 10 years to implement the provisions on TRIPS patents and “undisclosed information” on medicines. In July 2002, the WTO General Council agreed to derogate from the obligations of least developed countries with regard to exclusive marketing rights for medicines by 1 January 2016. The current copyright and patent standards set out in the TRIPS Agreement come largely from other sources.

With regard to copyright, the Berne Convention is at the origin of most of the provisions of the TRIPS Agreement. The main areas in which the TRIPS Agreement extends Bernese copyright provisions are the addition of explicit protection for software and databases. Similarly, the Paris Convention gave rise to the patent provisions of the TRIPS Agreement, to which the TRIPS Agreement mainly adds implementing provisions. The Berne and Paris Conventions are administered by WIPO. News on the TRIPS Council and intellectual property at the WTO, prepared for non-specialists. The exclusive rights to be conferred by a product patent are those of manufacture, use, offer for sale, sale and import for these purposes. Patent protection of the process must confer not only rights over the use of the process, but also over the products obtained directly by the process. Patent holders also have the right to assign or transfer the patent successively and to enter into licensing agreements (Article 28).

The cancellation of a trade mark on grounds of non-use may take place only after three years of uninterrupted non-use, unless the proprietor of the trade mark demonstrates valid reasons based on the existence of obstacles to such use. Circumstances that occur beyond the control of the trademark owner, such as restrictions. B on importation or other official restrictions, are recognized as valid reasons for non-use. The use of a trade mark by another person subject to the control of its proprietor must be recognised as use of the trade mark for the purposes of maintaining registration (Article 19). The initial registration and any renewal of the registration of a trademark shall have a duration of at least seven years. The registration of a trademark may be renewed indefinitely (Article 18). As an alternative for TRIPS specialists published here in response to numerous requests, official documents on this subject come from the 1986-94 Uruguay Round of trade negotiations. They give scientists an idea of how the TRIPS Agreement came into being. The documents include reports of meetings, other documents compiled by the GATT Secretariat and communications from negotiators.

Compulsory licenses and use by the State without the authorization of the right holder are permitted, but are subject to conditions aimed at protecting the legitimate interests of the right holder. The conditions are mainly set out in Article 31. This generally includes the obligation to grant such licences only if an unsuccessful attempt has been made to acquire a voluntary licence on reasonable terms within a reasonable period of time; the obligation to pay equitable remuneration in the circumstances of the case, taking into account the economic value of the licence; and the requirement that decisions be subject to judicial or other independent review by a particular higher authority. Some of these conditions are relaxed when compulsory licences are used to remedy practices deemed anti-competitive through legal proceedings. These conditions should be read in conjunction with the corresponding provisions of Article 27(1), which require that patent rights be exercised without discrimination in the field of technology and that products be imported or manufactured locally. What are intellectual property rights? Intellectual property rights are the rights granted to people over the creation of their minds. Other intellectual property agreements to which the TRIPS Agreement relates: the Paris Convention, the Berne Convention, the Rome Convention and the Integrated Circuits Treaty. The registration of a trade mark using a geographical indication in such a way as to mislead the public as to the actual place of origin must be refused or declared invalid on its own initiative if the law so permits or at the request of a party concerned (Article 22(3)). Since the entry into force of travel, it has been criticized by developing countries, scientists and non-governmental organizations. While some of these criticisms are directed at the WTO in general, many proponents of trade liberalization also view the TRIPS Agreement as bad policy. The effects of concentrating the wealth of TRIPS (money from people in developing countries to copyright and patent holders in developed countries) and the imposition of artificial scarcity on citizens of countries that would otherwise have weaker intellectual property protection laws are common ground for such criticism.

.