This paper analyzes the main economic issues of intellectual property rights (IPRs) protection in the context of the World Trade Organization (WTO). A retrospective view on the establishment of the TRIPS (traderelated aspects of intellectual property rights) Agreement, a still controversial accomplishment of the Uruguay Round of trade liberalization, is provided. The paper reviews the economic ...

The United States has been pushing for foreign patent protection through free trade agreements and the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). A gravity model using panel data from 1993 to 2007 suggests that foreign patent protection has not significantly increased the United States’ trade of pharmaceuticals. Other factors are stron...

The paper divides the evolution of protection for intellectual property into three periods; the territorial, international and global periods. The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) represents the beginning of the global period. Its consequences are briefly discussed. Developing countries, the paper suggests, have little to gain from TRIPS. This raises th...

Would global patent protection be too weak without international coordination? Would it be too strong with the international coordination mandated by the TRIPS agreement (Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights)? I try to answer these questions using a model of patent-setting game between governments. I introduce firm-biased government preferences and trade barriers, ...

granting of intellectual property rights on biological materials could be very contentious issue from cultural, legal, ethical and religious points of view. this could be even more complicated, once it acquires an international dimension. the agreement on trade related intellectual property rights (trips) is the latest international arrangement under which, a complex structure for international...

This article addresses the development of the World Health Organisation's (WHO) arrangements for accessing viruses and the development of vaccines to respond to potential pandemics (and other lesser outbreaks). It examines the ongoing "conflict" between the United Nations' Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the World Trade Organisation's Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellect...

OBJECTIVE The World Trade Organization's Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement establishes minimum standards for intellectual property rights, including patent protection for pharmaceuticals; therefore, it may make it difficult for developing countries to gain access to medicines, especially those countries that are the least developed. This study aims to deter...

T he Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (the TRIPS Agreement, Box 1) has to a large extent harmonized standards for intellectual property rights, including patents. For many countries, the TRIPS standards were higher than their previous standards. For example, TRIPS obliges countries to allow patenting of pharmaceuticals and imposes a minimum duration of 20 years...