Copyright generally refers to the rights of authors to their literary and artistic works. More broadly, copyrights also include “relevant rights”, namely the rights of performers, producers of audio recordings and broadcasting organizations。
During the uruguay round negotiations, members considered the standards for copyright protection in the berne convention to be generally satisfactory. Trips provisions on copyright and related rights clarify or add several points:
Trips ensures that computer programs are protected as writings in the berne convention and provides for copyright protection of databases。
Trips has also extended international copyright rules to cover tenancy rights. Authors of computer programs and producers of recordings must have the right to prohibit commercial leasing of their works to the public. Similar exclusive rights apply to commercial leases of films that lead to widespread reproduction and affect the potential benefits to copyright owners from their films。
According to trips, performers should have the right to prohibit unauthorized recording, copying and broadcasting of their live performances (piracy), for a period of not less than 50 years. Producers of recordings shall have the right to prohibit unauthorized reproduction of recordings for 50 years。
Trademark
Trademarks are a combination of symbols or symbols used to distinguish goods or services of an enterprise。
Trips defines which types of symbols are eligible to be protected as trademarks and what are the minimum rights granted to its owners. Trips provides that services trademarks must be protected in the same manner as commodity trademarks. In a particular country or area, well-known trademarks enjoy additional protection。
Geographical indications
The name or symbol associated with the location is sometimes used to identify the product. This “geographic marker” not only indicates the origin of the product but, more importantly, defines the characteristics of the product as determined by its origin。
Among the well-known examples are champagne (champagne area of france), scott whiskey (scotch whiskey), tequila (tkila, tequila, used as a feedstock in certain parts of mexico, using a plant called blue tequila), darjeeling (da gil ridge of india) and roquefort (rockford village of ruyerugu region of france, with the exception of rockefeller cheese)。
When products are produced in other regions or when they do not have normal features, the use of geographical indications may mislead consumers and may lead to unfair competition, and trips requires members to develop methods to prevent the abuse of geographical indications。
Trips provides a higher level of protection for wines and spirits, even if the public is not misled。
Trips allows for exceptions, for example, where the term has been protected as a trademark or has become a generic term。
Trips provides that the wto should undertake further negotiations to establish a multilateral system for the notification and registration of geographical signs of wine, which will then be extended to spirits. Wto is discussing whether to extend this higher level of protection to products other than wine and spirits。
Industrial appearance design
Industrial design usually refers to the design of the decorative or aesthetic aspects of the product and does not involve its technical characteristics。
Under trips, original or new industrial designs enjoy a protection period of at least 10 years. The holder of the protected appearance design is able to prohibit others from manufacturing, selling or importing products containing its design for commercial purposes。
Patents
Trips requires patent protection for inventions that are innovative, creative and industrial in all areas of technology. Eligible inventions include both products and methods. They must have at least 20 years of protection. However, if the sale of an invention is prohibited for reasons of public order or morality, the government may refuse to grant a patent for such an invention. No patent protection is applicable to diagnostic, therapeutic and surgical methods, plant and animal (except micro-organisms) and biological methods for the production of animals or plants (except micro-biological methods)。
Plant varieties must, however, be protected by patents or special (e. G., breeder rights under the international convention for the protection of new varieties of plants) or both。
Trips establishes minimum rights for patent holders and provides for exceptions to these rights. The agreement allows the government to issue “compulsory licences” to allow competitors to produce products or methods of use without the consent of the owner, but this can only be applied under certain conditions set out in trips。
In the case of a patent for a method, the right must extend to products obtained directly using the method. In some cases, courts may order alleged infringers to prove that they have not used patent-protected methods。
Integrated circuit layout design
Integrated circuits are an electronic device that combines a separate electronic component into an “integrated” module to perform an electronic function。
Trips's protection with respect to the design of integrated circuits (“top charts”) is based on the washington treaty on intellectual property rights in integrated circuits, concluded in 1989 but not yet in force. Trips added many provisions, for example, that the protection period must be at least 10 years。
In practice, the design of integrated circuit charting is usually subject to patent protection。
Undisclosed information
Non-disclosure includes commercial secrets and test data. The protection of commercial secrets prohibits unauthorized use of commercial secrets in breach of contract or other honest business conduct. The condition for such protection is that the information is confidential, of commercial value and that the owner has taken reasonable measures of confidentiality。
Testing data submitted to the government for listing of new medicines or agricultural chemicals must also be protected against unfair commercial use and disclosure. The extended transition period continues to apply to ldc members (see section on transitional arrangements below)。
Restrictions on competition licensing
One of the ways in which rights holders commercialize the use of their intellectual property rights is by granting licences to others to use their rights. Considering that right-holders may impose restrictions on competition, trips provides that, under certain conditions, governments have the right to take action to prevent licensing of restrictions on competition. Trips also provides that governments may consult on the control of anti-competitive licensing。
In general, trips recognizes that rights holders can use their rights to limit competition or impede technology transfer. The agreement gives the government the power to take action against acts restricting competition. In some cases, trips may also exempt from certain conditions to be met for compulsory licences to be granted by the government to remedy practices deemed anticompetitive。
Law enforcement
To make intellectual property protection meaningful, wto members must provide rights holders with the tools to ensure that their intellectual property rights are respected. Part iii of trips contains enforcement procedures. The agreement provides that the government must ensure that intellectual property rights are enforceable to prevent or deter violations. These procedures must be fair and reasonable and should not be unnecessarily complex or costly, or limit unreasonable time limits or cause unreasonable delay. The person concerned must be able to request the court to review the administrative decision or appeal against the decision of the lower court。
Trips is the only international agreement that provides detailed enforcement of intellectual property rights and provides for evidence, interim measures, injunctions, damages and other penalties. Trips states that under certain conditions the court has the power to order the disposal or destruction of goods that violate intellectual property rights. Deliberate trademark forgery or piracy on a commercial scale is subject to criminal sanctions. Governments must also ensure that intellectual property owners have access to customs authorities to prevent the import of counterfeit and pirated goods。
Technology transfer
As far as the protection of intellectual property rights is concerned, developing members view technology transfer as a condition for negotiation. Trips aims to promote technology transfer by requiring developed members to motivate their enterprises to transfer technology to the least developed members and to help them create a sound and viable technological base。
Transitional arrangements: one, five or more years
Although trips entered into force on 1 january 1995, the agreement also provides some transitional arrangements for wto members to fulfil all its provisions. Developed members have one year to ensure that their laws and practices comply with trips. Developing members and, in some cases, transition economies enjoy a five-year period, but not more than 2000. The least developed members, which initially had 11 years (as of 2006), have now generally been extended to 1 july 2021。
In november 2015, the trips council agreed to further extend the exceptions to patent and non-disclosed information protection for medicines to least developed members until 1 january 2033 or until they are removed from the category of least developed members, whichever is earlier. During the transition period, they may also be exempted from other provisions, such as the processing of patent applications and the granting of exclusive distribution rights。
Institutional arrangements
The main body responsible for trips is the trips council established by the wto agreement. The council administers trips. Specifically, it oversees the operation of trips. The regular meeting of the trips council is a forum for wto members to discuss key issues. The trips council will also convene special sessions to negotiate a multilateral system for notification and registration of geographical indications of wines and spirits。
Cooperation with other international intergovernmental organizations
In its preamble, trips calls upon wto to establish supportive relationships with wipo and other relevant international organizations. Cooperation between wto and wipo covers mutual legal advances, technical assistance and the implementation of trips obligations based on article 6 ter of the paris convention。
Wto also works in coordination with other international organizations, in particular by organizing forums, training and other activities on intellectual property and trade, and by discussing the relationship between these topics and other policies, such as public health and environmental change。
