Definitions and history

Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement Sources

owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets refers to creations of the mind: inventions, musical,literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce two categories: Industrial property and Copyright

 Statute

of Anne 1710 and the Statute of Monopolies 1623: origins of copyright appearance after the French revolution

 first  1888

:in Berne- Swiss Federal Office for Intellectual Property : WIPO

 1967

 1980:

Bayh-Dole Act

two-thirds of the value of large businesses in the U.S. can be traced to intangible assets limited to non-rival goods

allowing property rights in ideas and information creates artificial scarcity and infringes on the right to own tangible property

TRIPS was negotiated at the end of the Uruguay Round of the GATT in 1994 :
Compulsory requirement of World Trade Organization membership The most important multilateral instrument for the globalization of intellectual property laws Requieres member states to provide strong protection for intellectual property rights.

Controversy : growing level of criticism from developing countries, academics, and Non-governmental organizations
Against the WTO Imposition of artificial scarcity Instrument of protectionism Detrimental effect of TRIPS on access to medicines in developing countries :

= > Alliance of Southern Countries to renegotiate the TRIPS, failure of Cancun WTO summit in 2003 A number of flexibilities have been incorporated into the trips agreement The H1N1 case

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plurilateral trade agreement for establishing international standards on intellectual property rights.
Canada, the USA, Mexico, the European Commission, Switzerland, Morocco, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Republic of Korea, Japan, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia

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+ China,