1994 The Uruguay Round of trade negotiations concluded reached the Agreement on Trade-related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). The final agreement of this round of negotiations decided to establish the World Trade Organization (WTO) and formulated corresponding rules. That is, WTO members must abide by all agreements, including TRIPS Agreement, and simplify the settlement mechanism of trade disputes among member countries. As of June 5438+ 10, 2002, WTO*** has 144 members, and its trade volume accounts for more than 90% of the world trade volume. More than 30 countries are negotiating to join.
The Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights requires all WTO members to provide minimum protection for a wide range of intellectual property rights, including copyrights, patents, trademarks, industrial designs, geographical indications, integrated circuit designs and undisclosed information. In this way, the TRIPS Agreement covers almost all existing international agreements on intellectual property rights, such as the Paris Convention and Nepal Convention of the World Intellectual Property Organization, and adds some new obligations, such as geographical indications, patents, trade secrets and the government's obligations in the enforcement of intellectual property rights.
The TRIPS Council, attended by representatives of all member States, is responsible for managing the affairs related to the TRIPS Agreement. According to the authorization of the agreement itself and the requirements of the biennial WTO Ministerial Conference, the TRIPS Council deliberates on the implementation of all aspects of the TRIPS Agreement.
In the process of implementing the Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, the most controversial issues are as follows:
L Whether the goal stipulated in Article 7 can be achieved, that is, "intellectual property rights should contribute to technology transfer", especially for developing members of the WTO.
There may be contradictions between Article 8 of the Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights and other provisions of the Agreement. Article 8 allows members to take necessary measures to protect public health and prevent the abuse of intellectual property rights under the framework of TRIPS agreement; Other provisions stipulate the obligation to provide patent protection for drugs, the conditions for granting compulsory licenses (Article 3 1), the scope of patent exceptions (Article 30) and so on.
Article 39 of the L Agreement, on the protection of experimental data from "unfair commercial use".
Rationality of Article 23 of the Agreement providing additional protection for geographical indications of wine and spirits.
L The scope of patent protection for bio-related inventions, such as microorganisms (Article 27.3 (b) of the Agreement) and plant varieties, is consistent with other international conventions, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity.
L the cost that many developing countries and least developed countries in the member countries need to pay to fulfill the obligations of TRIPS agreement on intellectual property management and law enforcement.
The TRIPS agreement came into effect on June 1 995+1October1. Developed countries that are members of WTO should implement all the provisions of the agreement within 1 year after the agreement comes into effect; Developing countries and countries with economies in transition should implement it before 2000 1; If developing countries extend the scope of patent protection to new areas that are not currently protected, such as medicines, they can get an additional five-year transition period. The agreement also stipulates that the least developed countries should implement the TRIPS Agreement before 2006, but the Declaration of Doha Ministerial Conference on TRIPS Agreement and Public Health extended the transition period of drug protection by 65,438+00 years.
When the interpretation of TRIPS Agreement conflicts with a country's domestic law in implementing the Agreement, the member countries can submit the case to the WTO Dispute Settlement Committee (DSB) for settlement. So far, the dispute settlement mechanism has been initiated in 24 cases involving the TRIPS Agreement, including: 23 cases by developed country members and 1 case by Brazil; 16 relates to disputes between developed countries, 7 to disputes between developed countries and developing countries, and 1 to disputes between Brazil and the United States. Of the above-mentioned 24 cases, 10 was settled by both parties through consultation, 7 cases were decided by the expert group established according to the procedure, and the remaining 7 cases are still pending.