The TRIPS Agreement 5th Edition

The TRIPS Agreement: Drafting History and Analysis provides definitive insight into one of the most significant intellectual property legal agreements. This book is written by Daniel Gervais, who was actively involved in the original negotiations, and offers a detailed examination of the trade rules and intellectual property concepts that comprise the agreement.

It is uniquely positioned to give you a historical view of the drafting history of the TRIPS Agreement as well as practical commentary on its application today.

This fifth edition comes at a crucial period. It has been substantially updated and restructured in the aftermath of the landmark Australia tobacco plain packaging dispute and subsequent appeals – the single most significant case concerning the TRIPS Agreement in recent time. Key features include:

• Article-by-article analysis of the TRIPS Agreement – the most significant international agreement on intellectual property to date.
• Interpretation of all 73 articles from a unique authority on TRIPS who was involved in the original negotiations as consultant and legal officer with the WTO.
• Offers two distinct perspectives: a historical review of the evolution of the legal framework and commentary on the practical application of the articles in the present day.
• Addresses the role and influence of the TRIPS Agreement with analysis of the most significant cases and panel discussions.
• Chronological look at the history of the TRIPS Agreement to provide a complete background about its origins and explaining how it fits within the wider WTO system.
• Updates to the articles are indicated with strikethroughs alongside the current text, providing a visual evolution of the drafting.
• Summarises all the negotiation stages and the state of international intellectual property in a pre-TRIPS era.
• Explains underlying issues, connections with other provisions of the Agreement and the potential impact of other WTO rules.
• Includes the Annexes – the documents referred to within TRIPS which complete the Agreement.
• Discusses the impact of the Ministerial Conference of 2011 – the highest decision-making body of the WTO.
• Outlines the development of TRIPS between Marrakesh (1995) and Doha (1999) and the issues addressed at the Council meetings.
• Looks at the increasing role of bilateral agreements and the practical implications this will have on legal practitioners.