At present, the principles of international protection of intellectual property rights recognized by the international community mainly include the principle of national treatment, the principle of most-favored-nation treatment, the principle of transparency, the principle of independent protection, the principle of automatic protection, and the principle of priority.
1. The principle of national treatment
The principle of national treatment means that in the protection of intellectual property rights, the laws of each contracting party must give the nationals of other contracting parties the same treatment as the nationals of their own country or region. If they are nationals of non-members, they can also enjoy national treatment after meeting certain conditions. The principle of national treatment was first proposed by the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property.
2. The principle of most-favored-nation treatment
The principle of most-favored-nation treatment means that the benefits, preferential treatment, privileges or exemptions granted by a contracting party to a contracting party or non-contracting party in the protection of intellectual property rights should be immediately and unconditionally granted to other contracting parties. This principle was introduced into the field of intellectual property protection by the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. Unlike the principle of national treatment, the problem solved by the principle of national treatment is to treat the nationals of the country and the nationals of the contracting parties equally in the field of intellectual property protection; while the problem to be solved by the most-favored-nation treatment is to treat the nationals of each contracting party equally, and the nationals of a contracting party or non-contracting party shall not be given better treatment in their own country than the nationals of other contracting parties.
3. Transparency Principle
The transparency principle is also one of the basic principles of the World Trade Organization. It means that all member states should enhance transparency in foreign trade management and publish laws, regulations, trade agreements, judicial decisions and administrative decisions of general applicability, unless the disclosure of relevant information and materials is detrimental to the implementation of the law, the public interest or the legitimate commercial interests of the parties.