TRADE RELATED ASPECTS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Abstract

The Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual property rights protection (TRIPS)
Agreement, signed in 1994 as a founding element of the WTO, represents the most
important attempt to establish a global harmonization of Intellectual Property
protection.
The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of the international aspects
of IPRs, with particular reference to the effects of the TRIPS Agreement, which has
been described as “the most significant international undertaking on IPR in
history”.
This paper is mainly descriptive in character. It only attempts to give some
aspects of TRIPS and effects in developing countries and which are some of the
conventions that protect intellectual property (IP) in the trade system. TRIPS
Agreement has three main components, which relate to standards of protection,
enforcement and dispute settlement. It does not establish a universal IPR system,
instead, it lays down a set of minimum standards for the legal protection of IP that
WTO members are expected to comply with. Is TRIPS pro trade? Who will benefit
and who will lose from its implementation? These are questions that arise from
scholars of developed and developing countries. Finally some conclusions from
developing countries perspective derive from the analysis.