The objective of the TRIPS Agreement is to establish a set of globally uniform rules that provide adequate standards for the protection of intellectual property and ensure greater predictability and stability in international economic relations (5). At this point, it is important to note that the TRIPS Agreement applies to all forms of intellectual property: however, from copyright to trade secrets, this document will focus on the TRIPS Agreement in terms of patent protection; and its impact on the accessibility of medicines. The regulation of intellectual property rights has not always been a priority at the international level. In the second half of the twentieth century, the proliferation of high-tech equipment and the means to replicate it at low relative cost made it imperative to maintain an environment conducive to innovation. Industries that have invested heavily in research and development, such as the computer industry, have had their work hacked by other companies and sold for a fraction of the price offered by inventors. This created a more profitable environment for „second-comers“ than for first-comers1 and therefore strongly discouraged innovation. Prior to the adoption of the TRIPS Agreement, international intellectual property rights were governed by the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, which was first drafted in 1883. It was generally accepted in economic and business circles that the Paris Convention was not sufficient to address relevant modern issues in sectors such as information technology and biotechnology: there were few rules for patents, no minimum term of patent protection and no mention of the exclusive rights of patent holders. The TRIPS Agreement is the modern solution to this problem; it was based on the provisions of the Paris Convention and most of the provisions of the Berne Convention relating to the protection of literary and artistic works. On this basis, several other specifications have been added under the TRIPS Agreement to address the shortcomings described above (5). Any nation wishing to participate in the World Trade Organization was required to amend its intellectual property legislation to comply with the guidelines set out in the agreement, thus creating a uniform international standard for the protection of intellectual property rights. It was these events that drew the ire of public health advocates around the world. At the time, the WTO recognized the inherent weaknesses of its agreement and recognized that the TRIPS Agreement needed to be interpreted and applied in a way that took into account the health crisis facing developing countries.
The third recommendation seeks to amend the wording of the TRIPS Agreement in order to oblige Member States to transpose the provisions on compulsory licences into their national legislation. 3The June deadline was not agreed upon and was subsequently extended to March 2005. The March deadline also passed without an agreement, but on 6 December 2005, the WTO finally reached consensus on amending the TRIPS Agreement. This amendment follows the principles agreed on 30 August 2003. Member States have until 1 December 2007 to ratify the amendment so that it can be formally incorporated into the TRIPS Agreement. In addition to the basic intellectual property standards created by the TRIPS Agreement, many countries have concluded bilateral agreements to introduce a higher standard of protection. This set of standards, known as TRIPS+ or TRIPS-Plus, can take many forms. [20] The general objectives of these agreements are as follows: Despite the Doha Declaration, many developing countries have been pressured in recent years to include or implement in their patent laws conditions that are even stricter or more restrictive than those required by the TRIPS Agreement – these provisions are referred to as „TRIPS plus“. Countries are in no way obliged to do so under international law, but many, such as Brazil, China or Central American countries, have had no choice but to adopt them as part of trade agreements with the United States or the European Union. These have catastrophic effects on access to medicines.
Paragraph 11 of the Agreement also states that amendments to the TRIPS Agreement will be made to reflect these decisions by June 2004; 3 Review of Members` rules of application Members shall inform the TRIPS Council of their relevant laws and regulations. .