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The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights

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The World Trade Organization: Legal, Economic and Political Analysis

Abstract

The World Trade Organization (“WTO”) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (“TRIPs”)1 builds upon a long tradition of intellectual property rights protection (“IP” protection) in the national and international laws of Western market economies. Well before the advent of the TRIPs Agreement, a wide range of international IP treaties existed.2 Deficiencies in the international IP system, particularly concerning the level of protection, implementation and enforcement, resulted in the decision of the GATT Contracting Parties to vest regulatory leadership in the WTO with respect to trade-related aspects of intellectual property protection. What initially was conceived as a minor agreement, mainly relating to border enforcement against counterfeiting and piracy, emerged in the Uruguay Round as the third pillar of the multilateral trading system. It added a new dimension to traditional precepts of international trade regulation as they were known under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (“GATT 1947”). A new generation of WTO rules emerged.

formerly Deputy Director General of the Swiss Intellectual Property Office (now Institute of Intellectual Property) and legal adviser, Department of Foreign Economic Relations (now the State Secretariat of Economic Affairs); chief negotiator in TRIPs, dispute settlement and subsidies during the Uruguay Round. Chairman and member of several GATT and WTO panels. The author is indebted to Christophe Germann, Attorney-at-Law in Geneva and Zurich (DEA), research fellow at the Department of Economic Law, University of Berne, for his assistance in preparing this text, and to Matthias Studer, research fellow, for assistance in completing notes and checking the text. He is particularly grateful to the editors and Alice Zalik (formerly with the US Patent Office) for extensive and stimulating comments on a former draft. The structure and emphasis of this chapter, all views expressed, possible errors and omissions remain the sole responsibility of the author.

Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (Annex 1C to the Agreement establishing the World Trade Organization of April 15, 1994); seeGatt-Secretariat, the Results of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations, the Legal Texts 365 ff (1994), www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/legal_e.htm#wtoagreement (visited November 25, 2003).

For a comprehensive survey and sources see Thomas Cottier and Christophe Germann, Bedeutung und Wirkung der Staatsverträge im Immaterialgüuterrecht, in Schweizerisches Immaterialgüter- und Wettbewerbsrecht I/2 Grundlagen 35–122 (R.von Büren and Lucas David eds., 2002).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economic Law and World Trade Institute, University of Berne, Berne

    Thomas Cottier (Professor of European and International Economic Law, Managing Director)

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  1. Thomas Cottier
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. International Trade Law Center, International Law Institute, Washington, D.C.

    Patrick F. J. Macrory (Director) (Director)

  2. White & Case, Geneva

    Arthur E. Appleton (Counsel) (Counsel)

  3. SAIS-Bologna, Johns Hopkins University, Bologna

    Michael G. Plummer (Professor of International Economics) (Professor of International Economics)

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Cottier, T. (2005). The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. In: Macrory, P.F.J., Appleton, A.E., Plummer, M.G. (eds) The World Trade Organization: Legal, Economic and Political Analysis. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-22688-5_22

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