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THEAGREEMENT ONTRADE RELATED ASPECTS OF

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

RIGHTS

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FLOW OF PRESENTATION

Background and History

TRIPS Why TRIPS?

Intellectual property rights

Property rights dealt under TRIPS

Copyrights and main provisions on Copyrights

Patents and main provision on Patents

Process and product patents

Trademarks and main provision on Trademarks

Geographical indication and its main provisions

Industrial design and its main provisions

Trade secrets and its main provisions

TRIPS and its impact on India

Post TRIPS impact

Patenting and commercialisation of agriculture

Recommendation

References

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BACKGROUND AND HISTORY

Amultilateral trading system was created in 1948 as the

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).

1994:(TRIPS) added to the General Agreement on Tariffs

and Trade (GATT) treaty at the end of the Uruguay round

of trade negotiations.

1995 : The World Trade Organization (WTO) was

established as a successor to GATT.

All the members of WTO interested in multi-lateral tradinghad to sign an agreement on TRIPS.

AWTO-WIPO agreement was signed in 1995 and many of

the TRIPS provisions were imported from the Berne

Convention (1886) and the Paris convention(1883).

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TRADE RELATED ASPECTS OF

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

The agreement on Trade Related Aspects of

Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is an

international agreement administered by the

World Trade Organization (WTO) that sets downminimum standards for many forms of

intellectual property (IP) regulation as applied to

nationals of other WTO members.

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WHY TRIPS?

Should contribute to social and economic welfare and to a

balance of rights and obligations of the members.Art.7

Prevention of abuse of IPR that will restrain trade or

adversely affect international transfer of technology.Art.8

Aweak IPR regime in developing countries leads to losses

from "re-engineered products" for the original innovators.

U.S.A., Europe and Japan presume that a strong IPRregime is a critical pre-condition for private investment in

research and development.

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CONTD.

It would bring about increased flows of foreign direct

investment and technology transfer to developing

countries.

It would also stimulate local innovation.

It would also enable the developed countries to recuperate

markets from local imitators.

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INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) refers to thelegal ownership of by a person or business of aninvention/ discovery attached to a particularproduct/ process which protects the owner

against unauthorized copying or limitation.

Intellectual property rights give the creator anexclusive right over the use of his/her creation fora certain period of time.

Customarily divided into

(1)Copyright and rights related to copyright.

(2)Industrial property.

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PROPERTY RIGHTS DEALT

UNDER TRIPS

Copyright and related rights

Industrial property rights

Patents

Trademarks

Geographical indications, including

appellations of origin

Industrial designs

Trade secrets

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COPYRIGHT AND ITS MAIN

PROVISIONS

Copyright is a legal term describing rights given to creatorsfor their literary and artistic works.

The main social purpose of protection of copyright andrelated rights is to encourage and reward creative work.

PROVISIONS: Protection of computer programs as literary works & of

compilations of data.

Recognition of rental rights, at least for phonograms,computer programs, & for cinematographic works.

Recognition of rights of performers, producers ofphonograms, & broadcasting organizations.

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PATENTS AND ITS MAIN

PROVISIONS

Apatent is a protection given to a patentee for an invention

for a limited term by the government for disclosing the

invention.

An invention is new and useful improvements of

art, process or method of manufacture

machine, apparatus or other article

substance produced by manufacture

Patents shall be granted in all fields of technology but limited

exceptions to the exclusive rights can be defined by national

laws. The term of protection shall be at least 20 years from the date

of application.

Revocation/forfeiture of a patent is subject to judicial review.

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PROCESS AND PRODUCT

PATENTS

Process Patent

Developers of any new or improved method for processing

products should file for this patent to protect their

intellectual rights. Ex Post Facto Limitation

The process patent applies only to products produced

after the inventor obtains the patent.

Product Patent

Aproduct-patent system means that the end result, the

product, is patented and not the process by which it is

made.

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TRADEMARK AND ITS MAIN

PROVISIONS

Atrademark is a distinctive sign which identifies certain

goods or services as those produced or provided by a

specific person or enterprise.

The protection of such distinctive signs aims to stimulate

and ensure fair competition and to protect consumers, by

enabling them to make informed choices between various

goods and services.

PROVISIONS:

Initial registration, and each renewal of registration, of atrademark shall be for a term of no less than seven years.

Cancellation of a mark on the grounds of non-use cannot

take place before three years of uninterrupted non-use has

elapsed (Article 15.1)

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GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATION

AND ITS MAIN PROVISIONS

These are indications which identify a good as originating in

the territory of a member, or a region or locality in that

territory, where a given quality, reputation or other

characteristic of the good is essentially attributable to itsgeographical origin Eg: Darjeeling tea, Bikaneri bhujia.

Similar protection must be given to geographical indications

identifying spirits and wines

Members are not obliged to bring a geographical indication

under protection, where it has become a generic term for

describing the product in question.

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INDUSTRIAL DESIGN AND ITS

MAIN PROVISIONS

An industrial design is the ornamental or aesthetic aspect

of an article. The design may consist of three-dimensional

features, such as the shape or surface of an article, or of

two-dimensional features, such as patterns, lines or color.

There is a special provision aimed at taking into account

the short life cycle and sheer number of new designs in the

textile sector: requirements for securing protection of such

designs, must not unreasonably impair the opportunity to

seek and obtain such protection.

The duration of protection available shall amount to at

least 10 years.

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TRADE SECRETS AND ITS MAIN

PROVISIONS

Atrade secret is a formula, practice, process, design,

instrument, pattern, or compilation of information which is

not generally known or reasonably ascertainable, by which

a business can obtain an economic advantage over

competitors or customers.

Natural and legal persons can prevent information lawfully

within their control from being disclosed to, acquired by, or

used by others without their consent in a manner contrary

to honest commercial practices so long as such information:

(a) is secret in the sense that it is not generally known

among or readily accessible to persons within the circles thatnormally deal with the kind of information in question;

(b) has commercial value because it is secret; and

(c) has been subject to reasonable steps under the

circumstances to keep it secret.

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IMPACT OF PATENTS IN INDIA

ON PHARMA SECTOR: The cost of R&D has gone up manifolds and therefore it

is absolutely necessary to give more protection.

India will not suffer since majority of drugs in India are

off-patent and so prices will not be affected much

Weak patent regime discourages launch of new drug (bythe original innovator) and therefore reduces patients

welfare (so called).

ON AGRICULTURE:

Lead to large-scale single-crop farming and

concentration of land holdings

Seed patenting theft of intellectual property of

farmers

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PATENTING AND

COMMERCIALISATION OF

AGRICULTURE

Turmeric - two expatriate Indians atthe University of Mississippi Medical Centre,

were granted a US patent (US 5,401,504) for

turmeric to be used to heal wounds

The Indian Council for Scientific and

Industrial Research (CSIR) filed a case with

the US Patent Office challenging the patent

on the grounds of prior art

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RECOMMENDATIONS

The national system of innovation should be

strengthened.

y Fiscal benefits to firms and public laboratories

y Encouraging Entrepreneurship

Firms in developing countries will need to

collaborate more and more with Western

pharmaceutical companies, since they cannotcompete with them.

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THANK YOU