Post TRIPS Effects

The TRIPS Agreement, which came into effect on 1 January 1995, is to date the most comprehensive multilateral agreement on intellectual property.


1. For the purposes of the TRIPS Agreement, "intellectual property" refers to: ... all categories of intellectual property that are the subject of Sections 1 through 7 of Part II of the agreement (Article 1:2). This includes copyright and related rights, trademarks, geographical indications, industrial designs, patents, integrated circuit layout-designs and protection of undisclosed information.
As the post TRIPS effects, all member countries show their enthusiasm to protect all these rights of their citizens and to enforce them in their countries.

2. Strong patent protection is adopted by most of the countries.

3. Previously a plurilateral system of trade exists between the countries and the world is lacking of a multilateral framework of principles, rules and disciplines dealing with international trade in counterfeit goods. But after TRIPS a multilateral framework developed.

4. The TRIPS agreement helped a lot to the developing countries to grow their economic activity.

5. In the post- TRIPS era, signatory countries are required to establish a prescribed minimal level of IPR protection. This is, and has long been, a contentious matter for countries where the costs of strengthened IPR in royalty payments is easily identified.

6. Better insights into the positive benefits of enhanced IPR allowed national governments to plan economic policy more effectively, as well as providing a counter to the voices, such as those heard in Seattle in 1999, which are roundly condemning much of the globalization taking place under the WTO process. In the developing countries, strengthened IPR are a particular target of that rhetoric.

7. Before TRIPS the investment in research and development, were not meaningful. But in post TRIPS era countries began to invest more in R & D.

8. In post TRIPS era every developing countries try to produce a state-of-art product to patent it. The graph can state the point.

9. Effect of TRIPS in INDIA in pharmaceutical industry
- 5321 unique drugs listed
- 4577 have no patents listed on the Orange Book
- 799 drugs which do have a least one patent (map to 1760 issued U.S. patents)
- 361 drugs with 1 or more patent with post- 1995 priority(623 patents)
- 155 of these have Indian patent applications (160 unique Indian applications)

10. Due to the introduction of strong IPRs pharmaceutical multinationals are now advantageously placed to control the knowledge diffusion and integrate the local capabilities of a country like India in to their own myopic and narrowly benefiting innovation strategies.