Implications of intellectual property rights to the...

From page 12 depended on the production of intellectual property revenues.

TRIPS therefore had opened the door to the creation of a more robust and stable market in intellectual property rights. It did so by creating a comprehensive legal multilateral agreement among members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on intellectual property by which all members are expected to abide. By creating the rules, it also created a basis on which to enforce the rights of property owners.

Ineffective

It is not that market protection for intellectual property did not exist before. It is just that it was limited and fragmented, and consequently ineffective. The two most prominent conventions that sought to create and protect the intellectual property markets before the emergence of TRIPS were the Paris Convention and the Berne Convention. Each of these conventions sought to protect a part of the market. For example, the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property which was established in 1883 seeks to protect patents, utility models, industrial designs, trademarks, service marks, trade names, indications of source or appellations of origin, and the repression of unfair competition. The Berne Convention which was established in 1886 sought to protect every production in the literary, scientific and artistic domain.

The coverage of the Berne Convention did not discriminate with respect to the mode or form of its expression. As a result, things such as books, pamphlets and other writings; lectures, addresses, sermons and other works of the same nature; dramatic or dramatico-musical works; choreographic works and entertainments in dumb show were covered. Appearing as if it was afraid to miss anything, the Convention also included musical compositions with or without words; cinematographic works to which are assimilated works expressed by a process analogous to cinematography; works of drawing, painting, architecture, sculpture, engraving and lithography; photographic works to which are assimilated works expressed by a process analogous to photography; works of applied art; illustrations, maps, plans, sketches and three-dimensional works relative to geography, topography, architecture or science.

A third mechanism which appears in 1961 was the Rome Convention. This Convention, on the face of it, seems to duplicate the purposes of the Berne Convention with its focus on protecting the market for performers, producers of phonograms and broadcasting organizations. Like the previous two conventions, it did not have the ability to protect the market effectively. The three conventions were seen largely as national creations to protect inventions and innovations in domestic markets. They were not designed to promote trade in rights. The effort to achieve that objective emerged with the formation of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

To be continued