TRIPS and the Tradification of Intellectual Property

Abstract

The WTO TRIPS Agreement provided a comprehensive set of international minimum standards for the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights. Signed on April 15, 1994, this agreement shifted the framework for international intellectual property governance by bringing international intellectual property law and international trade law closer together.

This chapter examines what the authors call the "tradification" of intellectual property through the TRIPS Agreement, TRIPS-related WTO disputes, and post-TRIPS developments. It begins by recounting the shift of international intellectual property governance from the World Intellectual Property Organization to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and, later, the WTO. It also explores the role played by the WTO dispute settlement process in tradification. The chapter then discusses the developing countries' resistance to the tradification project. It shows that this project has provided more benefits to emerging countries than to other developing countries. The chapter concludes by identifying the different trends and forces that have shaped, and will further shape, the international intellectual property domain. These forces include the proliferation of international trade agreements containing intellectual property chapters, the incorporation of international trade law into the broader field of international law, and other drivers of change such as traditional knowledge and emerging technology.