TRADE RELATED INTELLECTUAL

PROPERTY RIGHTS
3.1 WTOS Agreement
The WTOs Agreement on TRIPS makes it
mandatory for all countries to establish
standards for intellectual property protection.
This Agreement came into effect on 1995 of
all developing nations including India, needed
to fulfill the above requirements by 2000.
While the developed countries were to
implement this requirement by 1996, the
schedule for the least developed ones gave
then time till 2005.
The TRIPS solution suggests a wonderful new
market will open up for nations like India,
South Africa, Brazil and china which have
domestic manufacturing capacity in
pharmaceuticals. There are so many
safeguards that few compulsory licence will
actually be used not to mention the delivery
and government problems that will plague
exporters from India. It could make India and
other developing countries think a big victory
has been wrested & thus deflect attention
from more important issues like agriculture.
Why an intellectual property
agreement in the WTO?
inclusion of the Agreement on Trade-related
Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights
(TRIPS) within the World Trade Organization
system of trade law stemmed from increasing
recognition of the significance of the
intangible component of trade technology,
knowhow, product development, distinctive
brands and geographical indications.
Audiovisual works, music recordings,
booksand journals, computer software and
on-line services are bought and sold largely
because of the value of their content, rather
than the value of the physical media such as
discs and newsprint. TRIPS established a new
multilateral benchmark for the balanced
protection, administration and enforcement
of intellectual property (IP), so that the
intangible value of trade could be realized,
while leaving suitable domestic policy space
and avoiding the creation of barriers to
legitimate trade. TRIPS articulated the
rationale of the IP system as contributing to
the promotion of technological innovation
and to the transfer and dissemination of
technology, to the mutual advantage of
producers and users of technological
knowledge and in a manner conducive to
social and economic welfare, and to a balance
of rights and obligations.

An implementation challenges
for developing countries
When TRIPS entered into force in 1995, many
developing countries already had significant
IP laws and administrativesystems in place.
But to implement the full set of TRIPS
standards presented a significant challenge
for most developing countries, as it involved
substantial development of their laws and
administrative systems. Developing countries
were concerned, when implementing TRIPS
standards, to ensure that their IP systems
operated in a balanced and effective way as a
tool of public policy: achieving this objective
can call upon a wide array of technical, legal
and policy expertise. An extended period was
provided for developing countries to
implement TRIPS; to facilitate this
implementation, developed countries
agreed to provide, on request and on
mutually agreed terms and conditions,
technical and financial cooperation in favour
of developing and LDC Members. This
technical cooperation has continued through
to the present, facilitated by a system of
contact points for providers of technical
assistance, and technical cooperation
programmes are documented in detailed
annual reports to the TRIPS