TRIPS and the Tradification of Intellectual Property

Document Type

Book Section

Publication Date

10-2025

ISBN

9781032507972

DOI

10.4324/9781003399711-15

Abstract

The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) provides a comprehensive set of international minimum standards for the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights. Signed on 15 April 1994, this agreement shifted the framework for international intellectual property governance by bringing international intellectual property law and trade law closer together. This chapter examines the ‘tradification’ of intellectual property through the TRIPS Agreement, TRIPS-related WTO disputes, and post-TRIPS developments. It begins by recounting the shift of international intellectual property governance from the World Intellectual Property Organization to the GATT/WTO framework. It also explores the role played by the WTO dispute settlement process in tradification. The chapter then recounts the developing countries’ resistance to the tradification project. It shows that this project has provided more benefits to emerging countries than to other less developed WTO members. The chapter concludes by identifying the different trends and forces that have shaped, and will continue to shape, the international intellectual property domain. These forces include the proliferation of trade agreements containing intellectual property chapters, the incorporation of trade law into international law, and other drivers of change such as traditional knowledge and emerging technology.

First Page

192

Last Page

206

Num Pages

15

Publisher

Routledge

Editor

Valentina Vadi & David Collins

Book Title

Routledge Handbook on International Economic Law

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