TRIPS-plus IPR Enforcement Provisions Of The EU’s FTAs

The enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPR enforcement) of the EU ranks theworld’s leading level, but that of the developing countries, especially of China has long beencriticized by the EU and other developed countries. The EU even regards China as its No.1concern in related issues. Striving as a collective force, developing countries has beenwinning increasing discourse power in multilateral forums such as WIPO and WTO with thehelp of their rapid development. In order to extend its TRIPS-plus IPR enforcement rulesworldwide, the EU has to shift their emphasis out of WIPO and WTO, takes advantage ofbilateral and regional free trade agreements (FTAs) instead to fulfill the expansion of itsTRIPS-plus IPR enforcement rules. In this context, this thesis analyzes and summarizes themain characteristics and effects of the TRIPS-plus IPR enforcement provisions and proposesChina’s coping strategies based on the comparison of three FTAs of the EU.Part one of the thesis generally introduces the concept, the causes and legal bases, themajor characteristics and the development process of the TRIPS-plus IPR enforcementprovisions of the EU’s FTAs.Part two of the thesis compares specific articles with regard to civil measures, bordermeasures, criminal measures and measures in the network environment in “TheEU-CARIFORUM EPA”,“The EU-South Korea FTA” and “The EU-Singapore FTA”, then itanalyzes and concludes their TRIPS-plus features and trends.Part three of the thesis further discusses the influences to international IPR protectionsystem and developing countries caused by the TRIPS-plus IPR enforcement rules of theEU’s FTAs.Part four of the thesis first illustrates the current situation of China’s IPR enforcementboth on domestic and international levels, then analyzes the difficulties and deficiencies itfaces. Furthermore, it summarizes the potential impact that the EU’s TRIPS-plus IPRenforcement rules might have on China. In the end, it comes up with coping strategies forChina to deal with the TRIPS-plus IPR enforcement rules during the FTA talks with the EU.