Kuanpoth, Jakkrit --- "Intellectual Property Protection after TRIPS: An Asian Experience" [2008] ELECD 211; in Malbon, Justin; Lawson, Charles (eds), "Interpreting and Implementing the TRIPS Agreement" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2008)

Book Title: Interpreting and Implementing the TRIPS Agreement

Editor(s): Malbon, Justin; Lawson, Charles

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847201447

Section: Chapter 5

Section Title: Intellectual Property Protection after TRIPS: An Asian Experience

Author(s): Kuanpoth, Jakkrit

Number of pages: 26

Extract:

5. Intellectual property protection after
TRIPS: An Asian experience
Jakkrit Kuanpoth

1. INTRODUCTION

Intellectual property (IP) was until recently the domain of specialists and
producers of IP rights. The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) concluded during the Uruguay Round
negotiations in 1994, signalled a major shift in this regard. The incorpor-
ation of IP rights into the multilateral trading system has elicited great
concern over its pervasive role in people's lives and in society in general.
TRIPS is a comprehensive agreement containing new multilateral rules and
disciplines with relatively high standards of IP protection. Developing coun-
tries that are members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) have fewer
policy options for protecting IP rights, and are enjoying less flexibility than
that enjoyed by developed countries in using IP rights to support their
national development. However, TRIPS is not the end of the story.
Significant new developments are currently taking place at the regional and
bilateral level that build on and strengthen the IP standards through the
progressive harmonisation of technologically advanced countries.
Developing countries face the challenge of constraint optimisation
on ways of implementing the TRIPS Agreement that minimise socio-
economic costs and maximise national benefits. The developing states are
now facing increased pressure towards higher standards of IP protection
(such as the so-called TRIPS-plus). The attempts of the developed coun-
tries to evolve the TRIPS-plus regime, which appears in the form of free
trade agreement (FTA), provide opportunities for those ...