Research on Recent Trends concerning the TRIPS Agreement and Its Meaning to Legal Framework of Intellectual Property

1本研究对贸易政策与知识产权相关政策之间的关系进行了理论和实践分析。特别是探讨了《TRIPS协定》对知识产权法的真实的意义。2《TRIPS协定》通常被看作是一项要求WTO成员国在高于该协定规定的水平上保证知识产权得到适当保护的条约。《协定》当然有这一方面。但是，从更广泛的角度来看，该协定构成了“旨在大幅度降低关税和其他贸易壁垒以及消除国际贸易关系中的歧视性待遇的互惠互利安排”的组成部分，也应该起到确定知识产权保护与自由贸易原则的界限的作用。本研究试图澄清TRIPS协定以及整个WTO协定的这一方面。3除了对TRIPS/WTO协定进行一般性的理论分析外，本研究还探讨了涉及知识产权与贸易政策之间相互关系的两个具体而实际的问题。这些问题是：平行进口的待遇，以及区域贸易协定中的知识产权条款。在这两个问题上，《与贸易有关的知识产权协定》/世贸组织协定都承认相当严格的原则，而世贸组织成员国采取的一些措施似乎与这些原则相冲突。

1 This research deals with the theoretical and practical analysis of the relationship between trade policy and policy related to intellectual property. In particular, it probes for the real meaning of the TRIPS Agreement for intellectual property law.2 The TRIPS Agreement is often seen as a treaty to oblige WTO Members to guarantee the protection of intellectual properly at the level higher than those stipulated in the Agreement. The Agreement certainly has that aspect. But when seen from a broader perspective, the Agreement, which constitutes an integral part of the "reciprocal and mutually advantageous arrangements directed to the substantial reduction of tariffs and other barriers to trade and to the elimination of discriminatory treatment in international trade relations," should also function to set the boundaries of the protection of Intellectual property from the free trade principle. This research tries to clarify this aspect of the TRIPS Agreement as well as the WTO Agreement as a whole.3 Besides pursuing theoretical analysis of the TRIPS/WTO Agreements in general, this research treats two specific and practical issues that involve interrelationship between intellectual property and trade policy. Those issues are : treatment of parallel imports, and intellectual provisions in the RTAs (Regional Trade Agreements). On both issues, fairly rigorous principles are recognized in the TRIPS/WTO Agreements, and some of the measures taken by WTO Members appears to be in conflict with those principles.