Tripping over TRIPS?

Abstract

Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) aims to help companies by encouraging a protectionist environment through the tradingof intellectual property rights (IPRs). This review of TRIPS focuses on copyright and related rights (trademarks, geographical indications, industrialdesigns, patents, layout/designs of integrated circuits) as being that areaof TRIPS that is especially relevant for librarians and information professionals, paying particular attention to the philosophy behind TRIPS and boththe business and moral issues involved. In considering whether TRIPS is essentially about the trading of IPRs or about the moral issues concerned withIPRs, careful study reveals that it tends to be about the former and not the latter. In order to trade in IPRs successfully, it is essential to imposesome curbs on trade and this leads to the conclusion that the philosophy behind TRIPS is about creating and perpetuating a market-based, competitive environment. Outstanding questions relating to the role of TRIPS include: whether or not it is fundamentally about encouraging trade or about placing limitations on the unsavoury aspects of trade; whether it is simply about trying to benefit big business even more; whether it will be particularly disadvantageous for developing countries, whether it will give due recognitionto individual creators; and whether it is about establishing international rules for IPRs that will ultimately benefit everyone in the globalized economy. It is concluded that TRIPS is about turning knowledge, creative works and ideas into tradable commodities through IPRs and this process enables value to be more easily created and extracted from these creative works, thus ensuring both the success of the knowledge revolution and the continued success of global capitalism.