LOGO

GATT and Intellectual Property Rights

GATT and Intellectual Property Rights

Introduction to GATT● The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

(GATT)● Signed in 1947● A multilateral agreement regulating trade

among about 150 countries. ● Aim—to reduce national trade barriers and to

stop the competitive trade policies that had so hobbled the global economy prior to World War . Ⅱ

The purpose of GATT● Reduction of barriers to international

trade:● Tariff barriers ● Quantitative restrictions● Subsidies on trade through a series of

agreements

● on a reciprocal and mutually advantageous basis.

GATT→WTOGATT→WTO

● By the 1980s the system had a thorough overhaul. This led to the Uruguay Round and ultimately to the WTO.

● In Marrakesh Agreement (1 January 1995), the GATT was displaced by the newly created World Trade Organization (WTO).

The development of GATT

GATT

International agreement

international organizations

GATT1997 WTO

GATT’s function and purpose now

● Three major areas of concern in international trade :

1.Goods2.Services, and 3.Intellectual property rights

Why are intellectual Why are intellectual property rights property rights considered to be a trade considered to be a trade issue?issue?● Most of the value of new medicines and other

high technology products lies in the amount of invention, innovation, research, design and testing involved.

● Films, music recordings, books, computer software and on-line services are bought and sold because of the information and creativity they contain, not usually because of the plastic, metal or paper used to make them.

● Many products that used to be traded as low-technology goods or commodities now contain a higher proportion of invention and design in their value.

The importance of IPThe importance of IP

● Ideas and knowledge

● Invention, innovation, research, design and testing

● Creators

Intellectual property Intellectual property rights rights ● Intellectual property rights are the rights

given to persons over the creations of their minds. They usually give the creator an exclusive right over the use of his/her creation for a certain period of time.

Types of Intellectual Property Types of Intellectual Property RightsRights

Intellectual Property Rights

Copyright and rights related to copyright

Industrial property

The rights of authors of literary and artistic works

rights of performers, producers of phonograms and

broadcasting organizations

Trademarks, including service marks

Geographical indications

Industrial designs

Patents

Layout-designs (topographies) of integrated circuits

Undisclosed information, including trade secrets