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

本研究对贸易政策和知识产权相关政策之间的关系进行了理论和实践分析。特别是对TRIPS协议在知识产权法中的真正意义进行了探讨《与贸易有关的知识产权协议》通常被视为一项条约，要求世贸组织成员保证知识产权的保护水平高于该协议规定的水平。《协定》当然有这个方面。但是，从更广泛的角度来看，《协定》作为“旨在大幅减少关税和其他贸易壁垒，消除国际贸易关系中歧视性待遇的互惠互利安排”的组成部分，也应该发挥规定保护知识产权与自由贸易原则之间界限的作用。本研究试图对《TRIPS协定》以及《WTO协定》的这一方面进行整体的澄清本研究除了对TRIPS/WTO协定进行一般性的理论分析外，还处理了涉及知识产权与贸易政策相互关系的两个具体而实际的问题。这些问题是：平行进口的待遇和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》/《世界贸易组织协定》承认了相当严格的原则，而世界贸易组织成员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.