The Agreement on trade aspects of intellectual property rights is one of the three pillars of the multilateral trade agreement that belongs to the WTO. The other two are the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)[6] and the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)[7]. All WTO Member States are also parties to the three above-mentioned agreements. [8] „Issues relating to the patentability of inventions of pharmaceutical or biotechnological products, the rights conferred by a patent or the possibility of granting compulsory licenses have led to obstacles to the conclusion of a final agreement on patent protection[4] Unlike other intellectual property agreements, TRIPS has an effective enforcement mechanism. States can be disciplined by the WTO dispute settlement mechanism. The agreement consists of seven parts that cover three main features: standards, enforcement and dispute settlement. The main general rules refer to the rule of non-discrimination and the definition of uniform minimum standards. [13] The main objective of the TRIPS Agreement is the harmonisation of intellectual property at global level. The agreement established a global framework for intellectual property protection and established compulsive minimum standards for a large number of intellectual property rights. In addition, each State Party may enact other laws that expand the protection of intellectual property. [14] The legal validity of the TRIPS Agreement set the following deadlines for transposition: (1) industrialised countries had to implement all the rules within one year; (2) an additional period of four years was granted to developing countries and (3) a transitional period of ten years was granted to least developed countries. [15] Following the Doha Ministerial Conference, the transitional period for least developed countries was extended until 2016.
[16] Figure 1: The normative framework – the three pillars of multilateral trade agreements 2 In addition to the basic intellectual property standards established by the TRIPS Agreement, many nations have engaged in bilateral agreements in order to adopt a higher level of protection. . . .