Since the TRIPS agreement came into force, it has been criticized by developing countries, scientists and non-governmental organizations. While some of this criticism is generally opposed to the WTO, many proponents of trade liberalization also view TRIPS policy as a bad policy. The effects of the concentration of WEALTH of TRIPS (money from people in developing countries for copyright and patent holders in industrialized countries) and the imposition of artificial shortages on citizens of countries that would otherwise have had weaker intellectual property laws are common bases for such criticisms. Other critics have focused on the inability of trips trips to accelerate the flow of investment and technology to low-income countries, a benefit that WTO members achieved prior to the creation of the agreement. The World Bank`s statements indicate that TRIPS have clearly not accelerated investment in low-income countries, whereas they may have done so for middle-income countries. [33] As part of TRIPS, long periods of patent validity were examined to determine the excessive slowdown in generic drug entry and competition. In particular, the illegality of preclinical testing or the presentation of samples to be authorized until a patent expires have been accused of encouraging the growth of certain multinationals and not producers in developing countries. The Berne Convention should be reviewed regularly to keep pace with social and technological developments. It was revised seven times between its first iteration (1886) and 1971, but has not undergone any substantive revision since. [33] This means that its rules were adopted before the widespread adoption of digital technologies and the internet. This long drought between revisions is largely due to the fact that the Treaty gives each Member State the right to veto any substantial change. The large number of signatory countries and their very different levels of development make it extremely difficult to update the agreement to better reflect the realities of the digital world.
[34] In 2018, Professor Sam Ricketson argued that “you dream” if you think a new revision will ever be realistic. [35] The ON TRIPS agreement is a minimum standard agreement that allows members to more broadly protect intellectual property protection on demand. Members are free to determine the appropriate method of transposing the provisions of the agreement into their own legal and practical order. General transitional periods apply to the original members of the WTO, i.e. governments that were members on 1 January 1995. Since the creation of the WTO, a number of countries have joined. These countries have generally agreed in their accession agreements (their accession protocols) to implement the TRIPS agreement from the date of their formal WTO membership, without a transition period being implemented. However, the agreement stipulates that members must provide for the protection of plant varieties, either through patents, through an effective sui generis system (i.e. a system specially designed for this purpose), or by some combination of the two.