ABSTRACT
The primary objective of this work has been to examine the endeavours of the GCC member states and Yemen in establishing national intellectual property protection regimes which both meet their international treaty obligations and are congruent with their domestic policy objectives and needs. The benchmark for this examination has been the TRIPS Agreement, with the study encompassing the status of protection prior to the introduction of the WTO and TRIPS (the ‘pre-TRIPS stage’), the states’ response to their obligations to meet TRIPS requirements (‘TRIPS stage’), the impact of external influences through bilateral trade agreements (‘TRIPS-plus stage’) and areas which fall outside the TRIPS protection spectrum (‘TRIPS-minus stage’).
