ABSTRACT
TRIPS was created not with the view of establishing an entirely new regulation but with the intention of supplementing and developing some sense of cohesion with the then existing major international conventions on intellectual property protection, namely the Berne, Paris and Rome Conventions, and the Washington Treaty. TRIPS is based upon and supplements these conventions by providing additional obligations and a higher level of protection. The supplemented provisions become compulsory, even for WTO member countries that have not ratified the above conventions (except for the Rome Convention which continues to be binding on states that have joined it), by virtue of their WTO membership. However, nothing in TRIPS may derogate from any existing obligations that members may have to each other under the Paris, Berne or Rome Conventions or the Washington Treaty.1
