Treaties Related to Intellectual Property Protection - Coursework Example

 Treaties Related to Intellectual Property Protection Introduction Intellectual property means creations of mind such as literary and article works, symbols, inventions, names and images that are used in business uniquely. It includes patent, copyright, and trade mark. If these properties are not protected globally, the business cannot gain the advantages of their creative works. It is painful that every efforts that a business has been putting in creatively to develop and improve further through its unique brand name, business plan and strategy, images, trade mark and patent some time have been stolen by other organizations and used for their illegal purposes. The business organizations nowadays increasingly need their intellectual properties to be protected by rules and treaties. The Intellectual property protection varies widely around the world. During 1994, the agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) was negotiated at the end of Uruguay Round of the GATT that was administered by World Trade Organization. TRIPS had put forward some requirements that countries’ laws are expected to meet rights for protecting intellectual properties including copyrights, geographical indications, integrated layout- designs, patents, and industrial designs. The Anti- counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is currently negotiated by the governments of G8 countries i.e. United State, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan, Canada and Mexico. ACTA imposed strong enforcement of intellectual property pertaining to internet activity and information based trading. Current situations of TRIPS The TRIPS and its agreements attempt to reduce the gaps in protecting intellectual property worldwide and to bring them under a structured international rule. According to Bruce A Lehman, “TRIPS agreement sets significant standard for the protection of copyright and related rights. Perhaps, most importantly, it contains provisions to ensure that parties to the TRIPS agreement fully implement obligations under it” (Bruce A Lehman, p. 137) The TRIPS agreement has performed an additional principle that intellectual property protection must contribute to the technical innovation and technology transfer between countries. TRIPS agreement corroborated that all types of computer software programs are literary works and requires each WTO country to protect them. The agreement also has provided enough rights to the performers of films and other programs that unauthorized copying should be prevented and duly punished. As this agreement was negotiated under WTO, there always was increasing numbers of arguments against it from developing countries and non-governmental organizations. By implementing intellectual property protection, it ensures encouragement for innovation and hence the agreement can be regarded to be a way of ensuring the improvement of standard life. AIDS drug in Africa was one of the controversies. This controversy has not led to a revision of TRIPS agreements, despite the fact that patents have played vital role in maintaining higher drug costs for public health programs. In Doha declaration, governments agreed that the TRIPS agreements do not prevent members from taking measures to protect public health. Proposed Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreements (ACTA) The negotiations of Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreements set for a cooperative efforts by governments so that they should be able to respond to the increasing international counterfeit activities and pirated copyright works. The main objective of ACTA is to set up higher benchmark for intellectual property rights enforcement that country can join on voluntary basis. International collaboration is the basic tenet of ACTA agreements by which governments agree to exchange information with each other in order to protect intellectual properties. The ACTA agreement’s main goal is to success in achieving new kind of agreement combining commitments to strong laws with a structure for ongoing co operation and the promotion of effective enforcement practices among the countries. This legal structure actually looks at strengthening legal procedures as well as bridging the gap between laws and strong enforcement on the ground. The ACTA agreements’ potential provisions include capacity building and technical assistance in moving ahead with enforcement, and international cooperation among enforcement agencies. Provisions include formal or informal advisory groups, including specialized intellectual property expertise within law enforcement structures in order to handle intellectual property right cases effectively. Potential provisions also include criminal enforcement, border measures, civil enforcement, optical disc piracy and other related issues relating to internet distribution. WTO’s TRIPS has been criticized that it does perform to be an effective and sound legal tool to protect technological and software counterfeits, but ACTA provides potential enforcement against both technological and software piracies. ACTA proposes to coordinate with non-industry groups like educators and librarians as it can provide as a strong information based system control on intellectual property activities. Now, the US administration plans to share the information about Americans with the governments of other countries so as to build a global network of governments that spy on their people and then easily share that information with other governments too. ACTA have also brought strong legal structures to bring pirates to the court of justice, but with a strict regulation that he should be convicted of doing malpractice. The ACTA puts efforts to achieve a framework for countries committed to strong intellectual protection to more effectively combat the intellectual property rights infringement today. The ACTA agreement possesses a leadership approach in establishing a positive example for nations that want to strengthen intellectual property rights enforcement Only G8 few countries are part of the ACTA agreements. And some countries sign up only for voluntary agreement basis. It is a matter of concern that how these agreements would work out if only few countries are members of it or signing up for a temporary agreement. The ACTA proposes to provide leadership to the enforcement and the protection of the intellectual properties and it enhances partnership with some countries that share an equal way of ambition in intellectual property protection. Conclusion This paper details the intellectual property protection agreements and its provisions that are negotiated by G8 countries. Through enhanced leadership and partnership, the ACTA can improve the global climate for intellectual property rights enforcement in those methods that will eventually benefit all countries. References Bruce A Lehman (1995), Intellectual Property and the National Information Infrastructure: The Report of the Working Group on Intellectual Property Rights, DIANE Publishing Edwin Mansfield (1995), Intellectual Property Protection, Direct Investment, and Technology Transfer: Germany, Japan, and the United States, World Bank Publications, 1995 Robin Gross (March 2008), IP Justice White Paper on the Proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), Retrieved 9/11/2008 from http://ipjustice.org/wp/2008/03/25/ipj-white-paper-acta-2008/ Read More