Intellectual property protection should contribute to technical innovation and the transfer of technology. It must also ensure penalties for infringement to deter violations. How does the Agreement on Trade Related Aspec

The WTO'S TRIPS Agreement is an attempt to narrow the gaps in the way these rights are protected around the world, and to bring them under common international rules. It establishes minimum levels of protection that each government has to give to the intellectual property of fellow WTO members. In doing so, it strikes a balance between the long term benefits and possible short term costs to society. Society benefits in the long term when intellectual property protection encourages creation and invention, especially when the period of protection expires and the creations and inventions enter the public domain. Governments are allowed to reduce any short term costs through various exceptions, for example to tackle public health problems. And, when there are trade disputes over intellectual property rights, the WTO's dispute settlement system is now available. The agreement covers five broad issues: how basic principles of the trading system and other international intellectual property agreements should be applied how to give adequate protection to intellectual property rights how countries should enforce those rights adequately in their own territories how to settle disputes on intellectual property between members of the WTO special transitional arrangements during the period when the new system is being introduced. The TRIPS Agreement has an additional important principle i.e. intellectual property protection should contribute to technical innovation and the transfer of technology. Both producers and users should benefit, and economic and social welfare should be enhanced, the agreement says. The agreement also says governments have to ensure that intellectual property rights can be enforced under their laws, and that the penalties for infringement are tough enough to deter further violations. The procedures must be fair and equitable, and not unnecessarily complicated or costly. The areas covered by the TRIPS Agreement are as under: Copyright and related rights Trademarks, including service marks Geographical indications Industrial designs Patents Layout designs (topographies) of integrated circuits Undisclosed information, including trade secrets.