TRIPS Agreement

Trade secrets (or undisclosed information ) are also protected under the TRIPS Agreement [34]. Despite this international agreement, there is a wide range of difference in the manner in which countries implement these provisions. Few countries, apart from the United States, have explicit provisions in their laws on the protection of trade secrets. In some countries, protection is only granted when a former employee takes confidential information to a new employer, whereas in other countries, protection is granted more widely. Unfortunately, once a trade secret is no longer a trade secret it can be freely used by anybody else who obtained the information fairly. The value of the trade secret is thus much more limited than, for example, patents or copyrights. 

TRIPS Agreement (Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property). Available at URL http //www.wto.int/english/docs e/legal e/27-trips 01 e.htm. 

The TRIPS Agreement, one of the treaties enforced by the WTO, has set a 20-year patent life for all products, including pharmaceuticals. The clock starts when an application for a patent is filed with the appropriate national patent office. During that time companies have the exclusive right to sell the product within the national market. 

TRIPS Agreement. Geneva World Health Organization. Available at http //www.who.int/ medicines/library/par/hivrelateddocs/pharmaceuticals wto trips.pdf [Accessed June 22, 2005]. 

Correa, Carlos M. 2002. Implications of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public... 

Reichman, J. H. 1996. From Free Riders to Fair Followers Global Competition Under the TRIPS Agreement. New York University Journal of International Law Politics 29 11. 

Thomas, J. R. 2001. HIV/AIDS Drugs, Patents, and the TRIPS Agreement Issues and Options. Congressional Research Service. 

Thorpe, P. 2004. Study on the Implementation of the TRIPS Agreement by Developing Countries. (Comm, on Intellectual Prop. Rights, Study Paper 7, circa 2004). Available at www.who.int [Accessed February 5, 2006]. 

WTO Doha Declaration. 2001. Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, Doha WTO Ministerial 2001. WT/MIN(01)/DEC/2, para 7. Available at www.vrto.int [Accessed February 5, 2006]. 

WTO TRIPS Agreement. 1994. Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, Apr. IS, 1994, Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, at Annex 1C, art. 27.1. 

Abbott, F. M. 2004. The Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health and the Contradictory Trend in Bilateral and Regional Free Trade Agreements. Geneva Quaker United Nations Office. Occasional Paper 14. Available at http //www.geneva.quno.info/pdf/ OP14AbbottfinaI.pdf [Accessed February 7, 2006]. 

Baker, B. 2004. Arthritic Flexibilities for Accessing Medicines Analysis of WTO Action Regarding Paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health. Indiana International Comparative Law Review 14 613-715. 

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