TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) is an annex to the agreements that established the World Trade Organization (WTO), the international trading organization that came into force on January 1, 1995, as the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). TRIPS sets forth certain minimum standards for the protection of the principal forms of intellectual property rights, including patent and copyright, by requiring member countries to comply with the substantive obligations of the primary international intellectual property conventions, including the Berne Convention and the Paris Convention. TRIPS includes a specific provision that expressly requires member countries to protect software, whether in source or object code, as literary works under the Berne Convention. Because TRIPS establishes only minimum standards for the protection of intellectual property rights, member countries have the right to provide more extensive protection of intellectual property rights within their national legal systems.
In addition to setting forth these minimum standards, TRIPS establishes certain procedures and remedies that member countries must make available to holders of intellectual property rights. TRIPS also provides that any disputes between WTO member countries regarding their TRIPS obligations will be resolved through the WTO's binding dispute settlement procedures. Whether an individual member country is in compliance with its TRIPS obligations is a potential basis for dispute, because TRIPS does not mandate the methods that member countries must follow to implement these minimum standards within their national legal systems.
