TRIPS: Ten Years of Disputes at the WTO

Authors

• Sue Ann Mota, Bowling Green State University

Abstract

"The TRIPS Agreement, which came into effect on 1 January 1995, is to date the most comprehensive multilateral agreement on intellectual property."

The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), part of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement, was enacted to reduce impediments to global trade, to promote effective and adequate protection of intellectual property rights, and to ensure that enforcement measures and procedures don't become barriers to trade. To resolve intellectual property and other disputes among member nations, the dispute resolution system is a central element in providing security and predictability, and preserves the rights and obligations under the global trade agreements.

This article will examine the TRIPS disputes brought to the WTO' s dispute settlement system among the current 148 member nations of the WTO in the first decade of the WTO's existence from 1995 through 2004. There have been twenty-one TRIPS disputes brought by twenty-three complainants to the dispute settlement system of the WTO during this ten-year time frame. Ten disputes involved patents, three involved copyright with an additional two involving motion pictures and sound recordings, two involved trademark, two involved civil enforcement of intellectual property, and two involved specific provisions of United States law, specifically section 211 of the Omnibus Appropriations Act and section 337 of the 1930 Tariff Act.

This article will examine the TRIPS Agreement and the Understanding in Settlement of Disputes at the WTO, and will analyze the intellectual property disputes of the first decade of the WTO. This article will extrapolate trends and will predict what member nations may do concerning dispute resolution involving TRIPS.

Recommended Citation

Sue Ann Mota, TRIPS: Ten Years of Disputes at the WTO, 9 Computer L. Rev. & Tech. J. 455 (2005)