This handbook describes the historical and legal background to the TRIPS Agreement, its role in the WTO and its institutional framework. It reviews the following areas: general provisions and basic principles; copyright and related rights; trademarks; geographical indications; patents; industrial designs, layout-designs, undisclosed information and anti-competitive practices; enforcement of IPRs; dispute settlement in the context of the TRIPS Agreement; TRIPS and public health; and current TRIPS issues. It contains a guide to TRIPS notifications by WTO members and describes how to access the official documentation relating to the TRIPS Agreement and related issues. Furthermore, it includes the legal texts of the TRIPS Agreement and the relevant provisions of the WIPO conventions referred to in it, as well as subsequent relevant WTO instruments and related non-WTO treaties. The new edition covers the public health revision of the Agreement that entered into force in 2017 and provides updates on other recent developments.

Antony Taubman is Director of the Intellectual Property, Government Procurement and Competition Division of the WTO Secretariat. Hannu Wager is a senior officer in the Intellectual Property, Government Procurement and Competition Division of the WTO Secretariat. Jayashree Watal is a former senior officer in the Intellectual Property, Government Procurement and Competition Division of the WTO Secretariat.