Developing a Positive Agenda on Enforcement Provisions of EPAs

Sisule F. Musungu - Regional Dialogue on the Economic Partnership Agreements, Intellectual Property and Sustainable Development for the ECOWAS - Organized by ICTSD, in partnership with ENDA and QUNO
Saly, Senegal, 30-31 May 2007

A key plank of the strategy behind the introduction on intellectual property (IP) in the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations resulting into the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) was to ratchet-up enforcement of IP rights (IPRs) in developing countries. Consequently, in addition to the application of the of the World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement system to IP disputes between WTO Members, detailed rules regarding enforcement of IP at the national level were inserted into the TRIPS Agreement. The whole of Part III of the TRIPS Agreement, containing 21 articles out of the Agreement’s 72 Articles, relates to enforcement.

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