|
The WTO's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), which came into effect on 1 January 1995, is to this day the most comprehensive multilateral agreement on intellectual property rights.
This international agreement for intellectual property rights provides a way to introduce more order and predictability, and for disputes to be settled more systematically. The main aim of this TRIPS Agreement is to narrow the gaps in the ways these rights are protected around the world and to bring them under one common set of international rules. The WTO's dispute settlement system has now been made available to deal with trade disputes between members of the WTO over intellectual property rights.
The agreement covers five broad issues:
| 1. |
How basic principles of the trading system and other international intellectual property agreements should be applied;
|
| 2. |
How to give adequate protection to intellectual property rights;
|
| 3. |
How countries should enforce those rights adequately in their own territories;
|
| 4. |
How to settle disputes on intellectual property between members of the WTO;
|
| 5. |
Special transitional arrangements during the period when the new system is being introduced.
|
The obligations under the Agreement will apply equally to all member states, though developing countries will be given a longer period to phase those obligations in.
The TRIPS Agreement is a minimum standards agreement. It allows member states to provide more extensive protection of intellectual property rights than is prescribed by the Agreement if they so desire. Members are left free to determine the appropriate method of implementing the provisions of the Agreement within their own legal systems.
Hong Kong is one of the signatories of the TRIPS Agreement.
The Copyright Ordinance, Patent Ordinance and Registered Designs Ordinance (all of which came into effect on 27 June 1997), as well as the Trademark Ordinance and Trade Description Ordinance, as amended by the Intellectual Property (World Trade Organisation Amendments) Ordinance 1996, are all in full compliance with the standards laid down by TRIPS.
Also, in compliance with the TRIPS Agreement, the Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department will help all IP right-owners to enforce their rights through border enforcement measures.
|
