Research On The WTO TRIPS Agreement And The Laos Intellectual Property Protection System

On October 26,2012, Laos accessed into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva and became the 158th members of this international organization.The accession process of Laos is quite lengthy, which began from presentation of accession application as early as 1997, but negotiations started until 2OO4.And after nearly 17 years of waiting, Laos DPR,the Communist Party and least developed country gradually and eventually involved by the WTO family. In order to comply with WTO rules and the price out of bilateral negotiations between relevant members, Laos do a lot of legislation and improve the work in the aspects of trade in goods, trade in services, trade-related intellectual property rights regime, and also made a solemn commitment. However, the WTO accession also had a very significant impact on economic and social development of Laos, especially the reforming of the market economic system, as well as the impact bringing about by the market opening, both of which is not small impact on this ancient and closure country.The combination of Intellectual property legal system with trade, was presented by developed countries to the eighth round negotiation of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in Uruguay, and eventually the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) became one part of the whole package of agreements of the WTO. For developing countries and LDCs, especially like Laos which economic system is not perfect, the lack of IPR protection awareness and systems concerned made a great challenge for this country. Successful accession into the WTO, indicate Laos intellectual property protection system has been basically in line with the regulations of the TRIPS Agreement in the accession process. However, the examples of China's WTO accession show that, in fact, the rules revising in the accession process was only the first step in the Long March, after the transitional period, Laos will also face a similar dispute cases encountered by Chinese intellectual property. How to prevent in the first place, Laos need to study the TRIPS Agreement, and thus make further improvement and modification to the intellectual property protection system in Laos.In this paper, in addition to the introduction and conclusion, the text is divided into the following six sections:Chapter I, overview TRIPS under the WTO, including from GATT to the WTO and the TRIPS; WTO TRIPS Agreement under the historical background; main content WTO TRIPS intellectual property agreements; several evaluations of the WTO TRIPS Agreement, focuses analysis of the applicable WTO TRIPS agreement to the developing countries.Chapter II, the basic situation of the intellectual property system in Laos, including the political basis of the intellectual property system in Laos; intellectual property legislation the legal basis of the intellectual property system in Laos; the economic basis of the intellectual property system in Laos; cultural foundation of the intellectual property system in Laos and enforcement of intellectual property rights and other aspects of the current situation in Laos IP system were summarized and concluded.Chapter III, on the improvement of protection for industrial property rights in Laos under TRIP S agreements, mainly including the overview of industrial property system, such as patents, industrial designs, layout designs of integrated circuits, undisclosed information, under the TRIPS Agreement Laos patent law system; focuses on the TRIPS Agreement and analyzes under patent law in Laos, including patent rights, industrial design rights and other new industrial property rights.Chapter IV, on the improvement of protection for trademark rights in Laos under TRIPS agreements, mainly including the TRIPS Agreement and trademark system, including trademarks, geographical identification, Laos trademark relevant legal system, discusses the trademark system in Laos under the TRIPS Agreement, including trademarks and service marks and geographical indications, including appellations of origin.Chapter V, on the improvement of protection for copyrights in Laos under TRIPS agreements, mainly including outlined copyright system of TRIPS Agreement, legal system and other aspects of copyright Laos, Laos copyright system comprehensively discusses the issue under the TRIPS Agreement.Chapter VI, on the improvement of protection for IPR enforcements in Laos under TRIPS agreements, mainly including the TRIPS agreement on intellectual property enforcement regime, including intellectual property rights enforcement in general obligations, civil and administrative procedures and remedies, provisional measures, specific requirements related to border measures and criminal several procedures, enforcement of intellectual property rights under the TRIPS Agreement Laos issues, including civil judicial procedures and remedies, provisional measures, administrative procedures and remedies, particularly border measures, criminal proceedings, as well as the impact of TRIPS-plus provisions, such as intellectual property enforcement in Laos angles are discussed.Laos and China are close neighbors, and promoting economic and trade cooperation with regional advantages. Ten ASEAN countries and China have built China-ASEAN Free Trade Area on January 1,2010. Accession into the WTO of Laos, not only bring many opportunities for Chinese and Laos companies under the framework of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area in China, but will also affect China-ASEAN free trade area on the regional economic integration and trade and investment facilitation in many favorable conditions. Therefore, this dissertation will give basic research data for future China-ASEAN Free Trade Area to build an upgraded version.