Intellectual Property Rights - 3

The Future of IPRs in the WTO

WTO members are on schedule as far as meeting deadlines set by the TRIPs agreement. Developed countries met their 1996 deadline, and almost all the developing nations completed implementation by their deadline, January 1, 2000. As part of implementation, WTO members have established laws protecting various forms of intellectual property, including copyrights, geographical indications, integrated circuit layouts and patents. They also have established formal judicial channels to enforce IPRs and legislated penalties to deter potential violations. WTO members have also created national intellectual property regimes that are controversial in that they involve substantial administrative changes and costs. Least-developed countries, have been granted an extended deadline; they must implement the agreement by 2005, but are exempt from applying patent protection to some pharmaceuticals until 2016.

With the recent agreement on pharmaceutical patents, WTO members have gotten TRIPs negotiations back on schedule, even though the Cancun talks ended prematurely. Technically, the agreement is considered to be an interim solution until WTO members modify the TRIPs agreements and successfully complete the Doha Round. Critics of the agreement will have a chance to improve the terms of the agreement as negotiations continue in Geneva.

IPRs also affect negotiations in agriculture and dispute settlement. The controversy over genetically modified foods and patents on life forms may become a divisive issue as agriculture negotiations progress. Also, recent regional trade agreements have begun formulating their own IPR enforcement rules, making dispute settlement more complicated as the WTO wades through the conflicting, and often vague, IPR regimes. General council meetings are scheduled throughout the first half of 2004 to try to accomplish what WTO members expected to achieve in Cancun. The outcome of those meetings will be a good indicator of how the Doha Round will proceed, and if WTO members will be able to conclude the round by its deadline in 2005.