The TRIPS Agreement. Requirements for Copyright Legislation and Their Implementation.

The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), or the TRIPS Agreement (English: Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, abbreviated TRIPS Agreement) — an international agreement forming part of the package of documents establishing the World Trade Organization. The Agreement lays down minimum standards for the recognition and protection of the principal objects of intellectual property. This agreement was adopted during the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in 1994.

The TRIPS Agreement opens up the possibility of using the highly effective dispute-settlement mechanisms available within the WTO in relation to intellectual property. These mechanisms provide for the possibility of applying enforcement measures by way of reprisals. If, for example, an author's rights from one country are infringed in another country, the former, having taken the disputed matter through the WTO dispute-settlement procedures, may raise the duty on the import into its territory of a particular product from the infringing country.

The TRIPS Agreement above all requires the countries intending to participate in it to comply with all the most important provisions of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, with the exception of the provisions on moral rights. In addition, the TRIPS Agreement includes a number of new provisions on the international protection of copyright. The absence from the Agreement of provisions on moral rights is justified, since the Agreement as a whole is aimed at regulating exclusively the trade-related aspects of intellectual property. The TRIPS Agreement incorporated a number of fundamental points supplementing the provisions of the Berne Convention. Under them, copyright protection extends to computer programs, the term of protection is lengthened, and international trade in computer programs and other objects of intellectual property with countries unable to provide copyright protection is restricted. The Agreement formulates the requirement that member countries adopt various administrative forms of copyright protection.

• The term of protection of economic copyright must be no less than 50 years after the author's death; for films and photographs this term is 50 and 25 years respectively from the moment of creation.
• Copyright must be granted automatically and may not be made dependent on the completion of any formalities, such as registration.
• Computer programs are treated as literary works for copyright purposes and enjoy the same conditions of protection.
• National limitations on copyright, such as fair use in the USA, must be clearly circumscribed.
• Patents must be granted in all fields of technology, although exceptions are permitted for the purpose of protecting the public interest. The term of protection of the economic rights conferred by a patent must be no less than 20 years.
• The list of subject matter that may not be patented must be limited in the same way as the limitations on copyright.
• Each state must grant to nationals of other countries that have acceded to TRIPS the same level of intellectual property rights as it grants to its own nationals.

• World Trade Organization
• Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
• World Intellectual Property Organization