Members may provide for limited exceptions to the rights conferred by a trademark, such as . B the fair use of descriptive terms, provided that such exceptions take account of the legitimate interests of the proprietor of the trade mark and third parties (Article 17). However, the agreement gives countries different deadlines to delay the implementation of its provisions. These deadlines define the transition from before the entry into force of the Agreement (before 1 January 1995) to its application in the Member States. The main transitional periods are as follows: Article 4(d) allows a Member to exempt from the most-favoured-nation obligation all benefits, advantages, privileges or immunities of that Member under international agreements on the protection of intellectual property that entered into force before the entry into force of the WTO Agreement, provided that such agreements are notified to the Council on the TRIPS Agreement and that there is no arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination against terrorism. represent. against nationals of other members. It may also clarify or interpret the provisions of the Agreement. Article 23 provides that interested parties must have the necessary legal means to prevent the use of a geographical indication to identify wines which do not originate in the place indicated by the geographical indication. This also applies if the public is not misled, if there is no unfair competition and if the actual origin of the product is indicated or if the geographical indication is supplemented by expressions such as type, type, style, imitation or similar. Similar protection should be granted for geographical indications identifying spirit drinks when used on spirit drinks.
Protection against the registration of a trademark must be ensured accordingly. Article 26(2) allows Members to provide for limited exceptions to the protection of industrial designs, provided that such exceptions do not unreasonably conflict with the normal exploitation of protected designs and do not unduly prejudice the legitimate interests of the owner of the protected design, taking into account the legitimate interests of third parties. Unlike other intellectual property agreements, the TRIPS Agreement has a powerful enforcement mechanism. States can be sanctioned by the WTO dispute settlement mechanism. The TRIPS Agreement introduced intellectual property law into the multilateral trading system for the first time and remains the most comprehensive multilateral agreement on intellectual property to date. In 2001, developing countries, concerned that developed countries were insisting on too narrow an interpretation of the TRIPS Agreement, launched a round table that resulted in the Doha Declaration. The Doha Declaration is a WTO declaration that clarifies the scope of the TRIPS Agreement and states, for example, that the TRIPS Agreement can and should be interpreted in light of the objective of “promoting access to medicines for all”. The TRIPS Agreement is part of the only commitment stemming from the Uruguay Round negotiations.
This means that the TRIPS Agreement applies to all WTO Members. It also means that the provisions of the Agreement are subject to the WTO Integrated Dispute Settlement Mechanism contained in the Dispute Settlement Agreement (Agreement on Dispute Settlement Rules and Procedures). Article 26.1 requires Members to grant the holder of a protected industrial design the right to prohibit third parties who do not have the consent of the holder from making, selling or importing objects bearing or incorporating a design that is a copy or essentially a copy of the protected design, where such acts are performed for commercial purposes. The TRIPS Council is composed of all WTO Members. It shall be responsible for monitoring the functioning of the Agreement and, in particular, the manner in which Members fulfil their obligations under the Agreement. Article 40 of the TRIPS Agreement recognizes that certain licensing practices or conditions relating to intellectual property rights that restrict competition may adversely affect trade and impede the transfer and dissemination of technology (paragraph 1). Member States may, in accordance with the other provisions of the Convention, take appropriate measures to prevent or control abusive and anti-competitive practices in the licensing of intellectual property rights (paragraph 2). The Agreement provides for a mechanism whereby a country wishing to take action against practices involving companies of another Member State may enter into consultations with that other Member State and exchange publicly available non-confidential information on the matter in question and other information at its disposal, subject to national law and conclusion. mutually satisfactory agreements on the preservation of its confidentiality at the request of the Member (paragraph 3). Similarly, a country whose undertakings are subject to such measures in another Member State may enter into consultations with that Member State (paragraph 4). .