This book examines the impact and shortcomings of the TRIPS Agreement, which was signed in Marrakesh on 15 April 1994. Over the last 20 years, the framework conditions have changed fundamentally. New technologies have emerged, markets have expanded beyond national borders, some developing states have become global players, the terms of international competition have changed, and the intellectual property system faces increasing friction with public policies. The contributions to this book inquire into whether the TRIPS Agreement should still be seen only as part of an international trade regulation, or whether it needs to be understood – or even reconceptualized – as a framework regulation for the international protection of intellectual property. The purpose, therefore, is not to define the terms of an outright revision of the TRIPS Agreement but rather to discuss the framework conditions for an interpretative evolution that could make the Agreement better suited to the expectations and needs of today’s global economy.

When the TRIPS Agreement was concluded in 1994, many saw it as embodying a new gold standard of intellectual property protection that not only reformed the Paris and Berne Conventions but also made further IP agreements unnecessary. Although this optimistic vision has eroded – obligations to protect IP rights can now be found in trade agreements and can be enforced before domestic courts and investor–state tribunals – the Agreement continues to pervade trends and developments in international law, not only in IP but in trade law also. This comprehensive commentary on the past, present, and future of the Agreement focuses on its influence on key topics in IP as well as on enforcement and dispute resolution. The editors have assembled a group of renowned IP law practitioners and academics who, taking each area of IP law, in turn, show the extent to which TRIPS provisions have survived, expanded, or been supplanted by other bodies. Their analysis covers the different IP rights addressed in the TRIPS Agreement (copyrights; trade marks; geographical indications; patents; data protection and enforcement) both in historical perspective and in their development in the last 25 years. An additional three chapters cover: most-favoured-nation obligations in regard of subsequent free trade agreements; how societal interests alter the interpretation of TRIPS obligations; the judicial role in the WTO panels and Appellate Body; minimum standards and reduction of flexibilities in IP policy; relationship of WTO/TRIPS with other international agreements. As intellectual property becomes more pervasive in society than ever before – and as both technology related to the use of IP and the way protected works are consumed have changed beyond recognition over the past 25 years – jurists, academics, and practitioners in IP and trade law will welcome this unique opportunity to test the true scope of national sovereignty in the interpretation of intellectual property rights.

NAture of obligations, principles and objectives; Substantive obligations; Intellectual property rights and competition; Enforcemente, maintenance and acquisition of rights; Interpretation and dispute settlement and prevention; Transitional and institutional arragements.

This book traces the academic footprint of Hanns Ullrich. Thirty contributions revolve around five central topics of his oeuvre: the European legal order, competition law, intellectual property, the regulation of new technologies, and the global market order. Acknowledging him as a trailblazer, the book aims to capture how deeply Hanns Ullrich has influenced contemporaries and subsequent generations of scholars. The contributors re-iterate the path-breaking patterns of his teachings, such as his contemplation of intellectual property as embedded in competition, the necessity of balancing private and public interests in intellectual property law, the policies of market integration, and the peculiar relationship of technological advancement and protectionism.

The constitutionalization of intellectual property law is often framed as a benign and progressive integration of intellectual property with fundamental rights. Yet this is not a full or even an adequate picture of the ongoing constitutionalization processes affecting IP. This collection of essays, written by international experts and covering a range of different areas of intellectual property law, takes a broader approach to the process. Drawing on constitutional theory, and particularly on ideas of "new constitutionalism", the chapters engage with the complex array of contemporary legal constraints on intellectual property law-making. Such constraints arising in international intellectual property law, human rights law (including human rights protection for right-holders), investment treaties, and forms of private ordering. This collection aims to illuminate the complex role of this constitutional framework, by analysing the overlaps, complementarities, and conflicts between such forms of protection and seeking to establish the effects that this assemblage of global and regional norms has on legal reform projects and interpretations of IP law. Some chapters take a broad theoretical perspective on these processes. Others focus on specific situations in which the relationship between intellectual property law and broader constitutional norms is significant. These contexts range from Art 17 of the EU's Digital Single Market Directive, to the implementation of harmonized trade secrets protection, from the role of Canada's Charter of Rights to the impact of the social model of property in Brazil.

Carefully authored by Justine Pila, this significantly revised and expanded third edition of Catherine Seville’s classic text, presents a thorough and detailed treatise on EU intellectual property (IP) law, taking into account the many developments in legislation and case law since the second edition.

Proposes a new expert-led international instrument to address access to essential technical standards.