The World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights was concluded in 1994 together with all other WTO agreements. It is the international treaty with the greatest impact on the intellectual property laws and systems of various countries to date. Compared with previous international intellectual property treaties, this agreement has the following three outstanding characteristics.
First, it is the first multilateral treaty that covers the vast majority of types of intellectual property rights, including both substantive and procedural provisions. These provisions constitute the minimum standards that WTO members must meet. Except for allowing the least developed countries to delay implementation on individual issues, all members may not have any reservations. In this way, the agreement has comprehensively improved the level of intellectual property protection in the world.
Second, it is the first treaty to regulate the standards and procedures for the enforcement of intellectual property rights, and clearly stipulates the civil liability, criminal liability for infringement of intellectual property rights, and border measures and temporary measures for the protection of intellectual property rights.
Third, it introduced the World Trade Organization’s dispute settlement mechanism to resolve intellectual property disputes between members. In the past, international intellectual property treaties did not have corresponding sanctions for participating countries that violated the treaties in legislation or law enforcement. The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights directly links violations of the agreement with unilateral and multilateral economic sanctions.
The Council for the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights established by the World Trade Organization is a permanent institution that manages the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights and supervises the implementation of the agreement. It is responsible for reviewing the implementation of the agreement and supervising the WTO member countries to fulfill their obligations under the agreement.