Berne Convention for the protection of literary and artistic works.
Coverage: Author’s rights/works
Adopted: 1886 in Berne, Switzerland
Purpose: Provided for the recognition of copyrighted works from foreign nations so that works produced in one nation could not be freely copied abroad.
Current signatories: 157 countries
The Berne Convention requires its signatories to recognise the copyright of works of authors from other signatory countries (known as members of the Berne Union) in the same way it recognises the copyright of its own nationals, which means that, for instance, French copyright law applies to anything published or performed in France, regardless of where it was originally created.
Rome convention
Coverage: Entrepreneurial rights/works
TRIPS Agreement – Trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights
Adopted: part of the Uruguay Round package (1986-1994) and the agreement to establish the World Trade Organisation (1995).
Origin:
- Intellectual property became economically important as an export product.
- Counterfeiting was growing
WTO members: 148
The TRIPS agreement introduced intellectual property law into the international trading system for the first time, and remains the most comprehensive international agreement on intellectual property to date
European community
EC Aims:
Harmonization of national laws
Creation of a unified market
Elimination of all unjustifiable barriers to free trade
Achievement:
Copyright law: most resistant to harmonization
Trademark law: greatest degree of progress (community mark)
Free movement of goods: There should be no internal restrictions to trade within the Union ...