TRIPS plus

"TRIPS-plus" refers to any requirement to provide stronger intellectual property protection than the World Trade Organisation's TRIPS Agreement, considered the international minimum standard, requires. (TRIPS is already a very high standard for developing countries!)

Specifically, the TRIPS Agreement says, in Article 27.3(b), that:

"Members may exclude from patentability plants and animals other than micro-organisms, and essentially biological processes for the production of plants or animals other than non-biological and microbiological processes. However, Members shall provide for the protection of plant varieties either by patents or by an effective sui generis system or by any combination thereof."

A free trade agreement or similar accord is "TRIPS-plus" on this matter when it commits parties to:

- grant patents on plants, plant varieties and/or animals

- accede, or try to accede, to the UPOV Convention for the Protection of New Plant Varieties (which is not mentioned in TRIPS)

- accede to the Budapest Treaty on the Deposit of Microorganisms for the Purpose of Patent Protection (which is not mentioned in TRIPS)

- conform with the European Patent Convention, which allows the patenting of transgenic plants and animals (and is not mentioned in TRIPS)

- conform with "the highest international standards" of intellectual property protection (which do not exist)

TRIPS-plus obligations are imposed by rich (who hold the property rights) on the poor (who have to pay royalties). Poor countries get locked into TRIPS-plus commitments through bilateral and plurilateral treaties such as free trade agreements, bilateral investment treaties, development aid programmes or research cooperation deals. In the field of agriculture, an agreement is TRIPS-plus when it requires a country to patent plants and animals, to join UPOV or to provide legal protection for biotechnological inventions -- none of which is foreseen under TRIPS. But the greed for stronger monopoly rights through TRIPS-plus policies also eats into other sectors. It can mean extended terms of protection for corporate trademarks or pharmaceutical patents, new intellectual property rights for encrypted signals or draconian restrictions on compulsory licensing. All of this to the benefit of transnational corporations.

TRIPS-plus standards could eventually form a new international regime for IPR. The World Intellectual Property Organisation is facilitating negotiations on a Substantive Patent Law Treaty which already points in this direction.

GRAIN focuses on how TRIPS-plus spreads patents and other intellectual property rights on life -- from the seeds farmers sow to the genes of indigenous peoples. For a broader look at TRIPS-plus agreements, such as the effects on access to medicine or their provisions on copyright, please visit http://www.bilaterals.org.

Analyses and reports

Opinion of the Office of the Ombudsperson of the Republic of Costa Rica regarding the (Office of the Ombudsperson of Costa Rica, Sep-2008)
See this issue of BIO-IPR (
http://www.grain.org/bio-ipr/?id=554
) for a summary

(299 kb) (grain.org/rights/?id=133)

Bilateral agreements imposing TRIPS-plus intellectual property rights on biodiversity in developing countries (GRAIN, Apr-2008)
Updated as of March 2008

(211 kb)

IP rights under investment agreements: the TRIPS-plus implications for enforcement and protection of public interest (Ermias Tekeste Biadgleng (South Centre), Aug-2006)

Negotiations toward a Free Trade Agreement: US demands for greater IPR privileges (Jakkrit Kuanpoth, Apr-2006)
First uploaded in 2004

(185 kb)

TRIPs ­plus approach: Implications to Thailand (Jakkrit Kuanpoth, Apr-2006)
Available in PDF and Flash format (by Jakkrit Kuanpoth in 2004)

(45 kb)
(73 kb) (grain.org/rights/?id=24)

FTAs: Trading away traditional knowledge (GRAIN, Mar-2006)

Intellectual property provisions of bilateral and regional trade agreements in light of US federal law (draft) (Frederick M. Abbott, Jan-2006)

Current developments and trends in the field of intellectual property: implications for Arab countries (Ahmed Abdel Latif, Jun-2005) (228 kb)

Intellectual property in investment agreements: The TRIPS-plus implications for developing countries (South Centre, May-2005)

(208 kb) (grain.org/rights/?id=86)

The Road from TRIPS-Minus, to TRIPS, to TRIPS-Plus: Implications of IPRs for the Arab World (Mohammed El-Said, May-2005)
This article sheds light on the evolution of free trade agreements (FTAs) and the IPR protection incorporated within such agreements. The emphasis is on the latest free trade and investment agreements concluded between the United States and the European Union (EU) with the Arab world and their "TRIPS-Plus" nature. Originally published in the Journal of World Intellectual Property, Vol 8, No 1, January 2005.

FTA: Facing The Apocalypse? (Cecilia Chérrez, Acción Ecológica, Jan-2005) (47 kb)

TLC: ¿Tenemos Los días Contados? (Cecilia Chérrez, Acción Ecológica, Jan-2005) (45 kb)

Las estrategias cambiantes y combinadas para consolidar la propiedad intelectual sobre la vida (Silvia Rodríguez Cervantes, Oct-2004) (198 kb)
(117 kb)

Bilateral agreements and a TRIPS-plus world: the Chile-USA Free Trade Agreement (Pedro Roffe, Oct-2004)

La propiedad intelectual en el TLC EU-CA: Mecanismo de apropiación del patrimonio bioquimíco y genético (Silvia Rodríguez Cervantes, Oct-2004) (92 kb)

Bilateral investment agreements and global IPR standards: Why this study? (GRAIN, Aug-2004)
Why we commissioned the report on BITS in August 2004.

Why we say no to CAFTA (Bloque Popular Centroamericano, Alliance for Responsible Trade and Hemispheric Social Alliance, Mar-2004) (120 kb) (grain.org/rights/?id=46)

Bilateral Trade and Investment Deals a Serious Challenge to Global Justice Movements (Aziz Choudry, Mar-2004)

Bad TRIPS dans le traité de libre-échange États-Unis - Amérique centrale (Jean-Frédéric Morin, Mar-2004)

The Future of Patentability in International Law according to the CAFTA (Jean-Frédéric Morin, Mar-2004)

FTA Chile-­USA: Some characteristics and lessons (GRAIN, Feb-2004) (60 kb)
(71 kb) (grain.org/rights/?id=25)

TRIPS-plus: How FTAs and other bilateral treaties impose intellectual property rights on life in developing countries (GRAIN, Feb-2004) (125 kb)
(136 kb) (grain.org/rights/?id=21)

Expanding Intellectual Property's Empire: the Role of FTAs (Peter Drahos, Nov-2003) (235 kb)

Divide & rule: the politics of US trade policy (Sidney Weintraub, Sep-2003)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3169649.stm

(grain.org/rights/?id=29)

Mercosur for sale? The EU's FTAA and the need to oppose it (Claudia Torrelli, Aug-2003)

http://www.corporateeurope.org/eumercosur/MercosurForSale.h tml

(grain.org/rights/?id=30)

TRIPS-plus: where are we now? (GRAIN, Aug-2003) (193 kb) (grain.org/rights/?id=31)

Regional and bilateral agreements and a TRIPS-plus world: the Free Trade Area of the Americas (David Vivas, Jul-2003)
Available from:
http://geneva.quno.info/main/publication.php?pid=113
or download from the grain.org server.

(334 kb) (grain.org/rights/?id=32)

Les accords bilatéraux et régionaux de propriété intellectuelle dans la francophone Jun-2003

http://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/ieim/publications/mot-obs.php3? id_mot=37

(grain.org/rights/?id=33)

Une rivalité Nord/Sud sur le matériel génétique : Le chapitre de la ZLÉA sur la propriété intellectuelle (Jean-Frédéric Morin, Jun-2003)

http://www.ceim.uqam.ca/Obs_Amer/Th_ZLEA.htm

http://www.ceim.uqam.ca/Obs_Amer/pdf/2003-Jean-FredericMori n.pdf

(grain.org/rights/?id=34)

TRIPS-plus must stop (GRAIN, Mar-2003)

Developing countries and international intellectual property standard-setting (Peter Drahos, Dec-2002)

http://www.iprcommission.org/papers/pdfs/study_papers/sp8_d rahos_study.pdf

(grain.org/rights/?id=38)

WIPO Patent Agenda: The risks for developing countries (Carlos Correa & Sisule Musungu, Nov-2002)

http://www.southcentre.org/publications/wipopatent/toc.htm

(grain.org/rights/?id=39)

The new bilateralism in intellectual property (Peter Drahos, Dec-2001)

http://www.maketradefair.org/assets/english/bilateralism.pd f

(grain.org/rights/?id=40)

TRIPS-plus through the back door (GRAIN, Jul-2001)
Click here to see this GRAIN publication (July 2001)

(grain.org/rights/?id=41)