A Handbook on the WTO TRIPS Agreement

WTO authors provide a comprehensive explanation of the WTO Agreement on Trade-related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).

This is a comprehensive, non-technical explanation of the WTO Agreement on Trade-related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), later legal instruments, current policy issues and the relationship between TRIPS and public health. It is aimed at government officials and policy-makers, non-governmental organizations, academics and students,This handbook describes the historical and legal background to the TRIPS Agreement, its role in the WTO and its institutional framework. It reviews the following areas: general provisions and basic principles; copyright and related rights; trademarks; geographical indications; patents; industrial designs, layout-designs, undisclosed information and anti-competitive practices; enforcement of IPRs; dispute settlement in the context of the TRIPS Agreement; TRIPS and public health; and current TRIPS issues. It contains a guide to TRIPS notifications by WTO members and describes how to access the official documentation relating to the TRIPS Agreement and related issues. Furthermore, it includes the legal texts of the TRIPS Agreement and the relevant provisions of the WIPO conventions referred to in it, as well as subsequent relevant WTO instruments and related non-WTO treaties. The new edition covers the public health revision of the Agreement that entered into force in 2017 and provides updates on other recent developments.