IPR - International Instruments - Summary

Module-1
1.1 Concept of Property and Intellectual Property

1.2 Nature and Types of Intellectual Property: Intangible Property; Industrial and Aesthetic Intellectual
Property
1.3 Constitutional Basis for Intellectual Property.
1.4 Theories of Protection of Intellectual Property Rights
1.5 Introduction to the Leading International Instruments Concerning Intellectual Property Rights:
The Paris Convention, Berne Convention, Universal Copyright Convention, Patent Co-operation
Treaty, TRIPS, The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
INTERNATIONAL CONVENTIONS OF IPR
Paris Convention for Protection of Industrial Property

(1883)
International exhibition of inventions held in 1873 at Vienna. In which
participation was hampered by the fact that many foreign visitors were not
willing to exhibit their inventions at that exhibition in view of the inadequate
legal protection offered to exhibited inventions. So, a Conference was
convened in Paris in 1883. 11 States signed the Convention for the Protection
of Industrial Property at the Conference and certain rules were formed:
National Treatment: It means that regarding protection of industrial
Property, each country party to the convention must grant the same
protection to nationals of the other member countries as it grants to its
own nationals. (No Discrimination) (Article 2 and 3)
Right of Priority: If an industrial property right is filed by a given
applicant in one of the member countries then the same applicant or his
successor in title may file it in other member countries in a time period
(6-12months) and it will be considered as filed on the same date as the
first country.
Independence of Patents: If one country gives a patent or rejects a
patent it does not mean that the patent will be accepted or rejected by
the other country, any country has no influence over the fate of a patent
in other country.
1
Patent Co-operation Treaty – PCT (1970)
• Signed in Washington, United States.
• Treaty for international co-operation in field of patents.
• No concept of International Patents, all powers still reside with the
countries.
• Complimentary Treaty to Paris Convention and is open to only those
who are member of the Paris Convention.
PCT established:
1 An international system – Filling in a single Patent Office “receiving
office” with a single application “international application”, in one
language which will have effect in all countries party to the PCT.
2. International publication of International applications.
3. International preliminary examination of the application which gives
the Patent office in the country a report containing opinion about the
patentability of the Application.
Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and

Artistic Works (1886) (Modified at Paris in 1971)
Oldest Treaty in field of Copyrights;
Aim - “Protect, in as effective and uniform a manner as possible, the rights of
authors in their literary and artistic works”
National Treatment
Automatic Protection: National Protection not dependant on
formalities like registration, fee deposit etc.
Independence of Protection: Protection is independent of the
existence of protection in the country of origin of the work.
Concept of “Folklore”
Though the word wasn’t used but the convention gives the rights to the
country if the author is unknown and there is a ground to presume that
work originated from that country.
2
Universal Copyright Convention – UCC (1952)
Adopted in Geneva, Switzerland
Developed by UNESCO as an alternative to Berne Convention for states who
didn’t agree with Berne Convention but still wanted to be part of a multilateral
copyright treaty.
• The Berne Convention did not require registration or the inclusion
of a copyright notice for copyright to exist and provided copyright
for single term based on the life of the Author.
• Under UCC copyright protection was provided for a fixed
renewable period and for copyrighting it must contain a copyright
notice and be registered at a Copyright Office.
These totally different procedures created difference between Berne
convention members and UCC members.
But today most states are members of the TRIPS agreement, the UCC has lost
significance.
TRIPS Agreement (1994)

Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights
Came into force: 1st Jan 1995
Includes most of Berne Convention Rules.
TRIPS agreement was negotiated at the Uruguay Round of GATT (Authority
before WTO).
Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property
Rights (TRIPS) is an international agreement administered by
the World Trade Organization (WTO) that sets down minimum
standards for many forms of intellectual property (IP) regulation
as applied to nationals of other WTO Members, So all WTO
members are TRIPS members.
The TRIPS agreement introduced intellectual property law into the
international trading system for the first time and remains the most
comprehensive international agreement on intellectual property to date.
3
Obligations under TRIPS apply to all members equally but developing countries
were given more time to make changes in their national laws.
Had to be Implemented:
within 6 years for developed countries i.e 31 December 2000 and
within 10 years for developing countries i.e. 31 December 2004.
TRIPS included provisions regarding

National Treatment (Article 3)
Most Favoured Nation (Article 4): With regard to the protection of
intellectual property, any advantage, favour, privilege or immunity
granted by a Member to the nationals of any other country shall be
accorded immediately and unconditionally to the nationals of all other
Members.
Standards of protection to its members
Enforcement of IPR’s, provides procedures, remedies, provisional
measures in detail.
WTO’s dispute settlement procedures apply in case of disputes.
TRIPS plus: In recent years, many developing countries have been coming
under pressure to enact or implement even tougher or more restrictive
conditions in their patent laws than are required by the TRIPS Agreement –
these are known as ‘TRIPS plus’ provisions.

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Module-1

1.1 Concept of Property and Intellectual Property

INTERNATIONAL CONVENTIONS OF IPR

Paris Convention for Protection of Industrial Property

Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and

TRIPS Agreement (1994)

TRIPS included provisions regarding

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