Trips Agreement, 1994

In the early 1990s, countries that made films, software and medicines argued that copying in other countries was a trade problem, not only a legal one. The old treaties had rules but no real way to make countries follow them. So intellectual property was brought inside the world trade system, where a country that breaks the rules can be taken to a dispute panel. The result was the TRIPS Agreement, and it changed the Indian statute book within a decade.

In two minutes

The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), 1994, part of the WTO package, sets minimum standards for all main forms of intellectual property, requires national treatment and most-favoured-nation treatment, requires effective enforcement, and is backed by WTO dispute settlement.

The rest of this chapter

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