THE AGREEMENT ON

TRADE RELATED ASPECTS OF

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
RIGHTS
 FLOW OF PRESENTATION
 Background and History
 TRIPS
 Why TRIPS?
 Intellectual property rights
 Property rights dealt under TRIPS
 Copyrights and main provisions on Copyrights
 Patents and main provision on Patents
 Process and product patents
 Trademarks and main provision on Trademarks
 Geographical indication and its main provisions
 Industrial design and its main provisions
 Trade secrets and its main provisions
 TRIPS and its impact on India
 Post TRIPS impact
 Patenting and commercialisation of agriculture
 Recommendation
 References
 BACKGROUND AND HISTORY
 A multilateral trading system was created in 1948 as the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).

 1994:(TRIPS) added to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

(GATT) treaty at the end of the Uruguay round of trade
negotiations.

 1995 : The World Trade Organization (WTO) was established as a

successor to GATT.

 All the members of WTO interested in multi-lateral trading had to

sign an agreement on TRIPS.

 A WTO-WIPO agreement was signed in 1995 and many of the

TRIPS provisions were imported from the Berne Convention (1886)
and the Paris convention(1883).
TRADE RELATED ASPECTS OF
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
 The agreement on Trade Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is an
international agreement administered by the World Trade
Organization (WTO) that sets down minimum standards
for many forms of intellectual property (IP) regulation as
applied to nationals of other WTO members.
 WHY TRIPS?

 Should contribute to social and economic welfare and to a balance

of rights and obligations of the members.Art.7

 Prevention of abuse of IPR that will restrain trade or adversely

affect international transfer of technology.Art.8

 A weak IPR regime in developing countries leads to losses from "re-

engineered products" for the original innovators.

 U.S.A., Europe and Japan presume that a strong IPR regime is a

critical pre-condition for private investment in research and
development.
 CONTD….

 It would bring about increased flows of foreign direct investment

and technology transfer to developing countries.

 It would also stimulate local innovation.

 It would also enable the developed countries to recuperate markets

from local imitators.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
 Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) refers to the legal
ownership of by a person or business of an invention/
discovery attached to a particular product/ process which
protects the owner against unauthorized copying or
limitation.

 Intellectual property rights give the creator an exclusive right

over the use of his/her creation for a certain period of time.

 Customarily divided into

(1)Copyright and rights related to copyright.
(2)Industrial property.
 PROPERTY RIGHTS DEALT UNDER
TRIPS

 Copyright and related rights

 Industrial property rights
 Patents

 Trademarks

 Geographical indications, including appellations of

origin
 Industrial designs

 Trade secrets
 COPYRIGHT AND ITS MAIN
PROVISIONS
 Copyright is a legal term describing rights given to creators for their
literary and artistic works.

 The main social purpose of protection of copyright and related rights

is to encourage and reward creative work.

PROVISIONS:
 Protection of computer programs as literary works & of compilations
of data.

 Recognition of rental rights, at least for phonograms, computer

programs, & for cinematographic works.

 Recognition of rights of performers, producers of phonograms, &

broadcasting organizations.
 PATENTS AND ITS MAIN
PROVISIONS
 A patent is a protection given to a patentee for an invention for a
limited term by the government for disclosing the invention.
 An invention is new and useful improvements of
 art, process or method of manufacture
 machine, apparatus or other article
 substance produced by manufacture
 Patents shall be granted in all fields of technology but limited
exceptions to the exclusive rights can be defined by national laws.
 The term of protection shall be at least 20 years from the date of
application.
 Revocation/forfeiture of a patent is subject to judicial review.
 PROCESS AND PRODUCT PATENTS

 Process Patent
Developers of any new or improved method for processing products
should file for this patent to protect their intellectual rights.
 Ex Post Facto Limitation
The process patent applies only to products produced after
the inventor obtains the patent.

 Product Patent
A product-patent system means that the end result, the product, is
patented and not the process by which it is made.
 TRADEMARK AND ITS MAIN
PROVISIONS
 A trademark is a distinctive sign which identifies certain goods or
services as those produced or provided by a specific person or
enterprise.
 The protection of such distinctive signs aims to stimulate and ensure
fair competition and to protect consumers, by enabling  them to
make informed choices between various goods and services.

PROVISIONS:
 Initial registration, and each renewal of registration, of a trademark
shall be for a term of no less than seven years.
 Cancellation of a mark on the grounds of non-use cannot take place
before three years of uninterrupted non-use has elapsed (Article
15.1)
 GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATION AND
ITS MAIN PROVISIONS

 These are indications which identify a good as originating in the

territory of a member, or a region or locality in that territory, where a
given quality, reputation or other characteristic of the good is
essentially attributable to its geographical origin Eg: Darjeeling tea,
Bikaneri bhujia.

 Similar protection must be given to geographical indications

identifying spirits and wines

 Members are not obliged to bring a geographical indication under

protection, where it has become a generic term for describing the
product in question.
INDUSTRIAL DESIGN AND ITS MAIN
PROVISIONS
 An industrial design is the ornamental or aesthetic aspect of an
article. The design may consist of three-dimensional features, such
as the shape or surface of an article, or of two-dimensional features,
such as patterns, lines or color.

 There is a special provision aimed at taking into account the short

life cycle and sheer number of new designs in the textile sector:
requirements for securing protection of such designs, must not
unreasonably impair the opportunity to seek and obtain such
protection.

 The duration of protection available shall amount to at least 10

years.
 TRADE SECRETS AND ITS MAIN
PROVISIONS
 A trade secret is a formula, practice, process, design, instrument,
pattern, or compilation of information which is not generally known
or reasonably ascertainable, by which a business can obtain an
economic advantage over competitors or customers.
 Natural and legal persons can prevent information lawfully within
their control from being disclosed to, acquired by, or used by others
without their consent in a manner contrary to honest commercial
practices so long as such information:
  (a) is secret in the sense that it is not generally known among or
readily accessible to persons within the circles that normally deal with
the kind of information in question;
(b) has commercial value because it is secret; and
(c) has been subject to reasonable steps under the circumstances
to keep it secret.
 IMPACT OF PATENTS IN INDIA
 ON PHARMA SECTOR:
 The cost of R&D has gone up manifolds and therefore it is
absolutely necessary to give more protection.
 India will not suffer since majority of drugs in India are off-
patent and so prices will not be affected much
 Weak patent regime discourages launch of new drug (by the
original innovator) and therefore reduces patient’s welfare (so
called).

 ON AGRICULTURE:
 Lead to large-scale single-crop farming and concentration of
land holdings
 Seed patenting – theft of intellectual property of farmers
PATENTING AND
COMMERCIALISATION OF
AGRICULTURE

Turmeric -
 two expatriate Indians at the
University of Mississippi Medical Centre, were
granted a US patent (US 5,401,504) for turmeric to
be used to heal wounds
The Indian Council for Scientific and Industrial
Research (CSIR) filed a case with the US Patent
Office challenging the patent on the grounds of ‘prior
art
 RECOMMENDATIONS
 The national system of innovation should be
strengthened.
 Fiscal benefits to firms and public laboratories
 Encouraging Entrepreneurship

 Firms in developing countries will need to collaborate

more and more with Western pharmaceutical companies,
since they cannot compete with them.
THANK YOU