The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights - Dissertation Example

The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) of the World Trade Organization is an attempt to mitigate the clash between protection and access. It seeks to do this by offering certain flexibilities in the protection of intellectual property rights when it becomes necessary to put forward the interest of safeguarding human health. For some, the TRIPS Agreement lacks the forcefulness that is required for it to create a real difference in the matter of international IPR protection standardization.

The TRIPS Agreement merely sets minimum standards of intellectual property rights, and by its flexibilities allows the WTO Member States to translate the provisions of the Agreement in accordance with their national laws. They may bind themselves in various levels of stringency when applying the standards, as long as the minimum is not breached. Developed countries that are the sources of much of the world’s intellectual property exports would tend to adhere to and require of their partners, IPR standards far in excess of the minimum required by TRIPS.

Such bilateral agreements are termed the “TRIPS-plus” Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). In many instances, such agreements necessitate the institution of dramatic changes in the IP system of the counterparty to the technology exporter, which often turns out to be a developing country. The resulting distortion in the legal system of the developing country causes it to untimely exceed TRIPS standards, to the disadvantage of its own legislative, political and economic structures.The aforementioned situation provides a real-world illustration of the tensions that are at play in the matter of the protection of intellectual property rights in the international arena, in general, and the TRIPS provisions in particular.

This highlights the necessity of conducting closer scrutiny of the implications of the TRIPS Agreement in the enhancement, or deterioration, of economic progress among the developing Member countries of the World Trade Organization.