ABSTRACT
The Agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) forms the most complete multilateral agreement concluded up to the present. The TRIPS harmonizes the duration and conditions for the protection of intellectual rights and secures for WTO members the means of enforcing this protection. The agreement incorporates various conventions relative to the protection of intellectual property such as the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property1 (1967), the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works2 (1971), the Rome Convention on the Protection of Performing Artists, Producers of Sound Records and Broadcasting Organizations (1961) (see Box 6.1) and the ‘Treaty on Intellectual Property in Respect of Integrated Circuits’ (1989). The commitments deriving from these conventions are integrated in the TRIPS and have become obligations of the agreement (Articles 2:1 and 9:1).
