A Study Of The Patent Rules In The FTA Framework

In 21 st century, the process of the multilateral trade system became slowly. The FTA flourished as the consequence of the developed economies like the US and Europe shifted the negotiation forum to bilateral platform in order to maintain its interests in global trade. Dissatisfying with the intellectual property rights(IPR) protection standards in TRIPs, developed economies like the US and Europe constantly promote high-level intellectual property rights(IPR) protection standards in FTA,thus emerged the “TRIPs-plus rules”. As one of the most important form of IPR, the patent is considered as the basic of the production growth. In order to maintain its absolute advantage in the field of science and technology, the “TRIPs-plus rules” of patent become an important part in the FTA which leading by United States and Europe and other developed countries.The “TRIPs-plus rules” of patent is based on the interests and need of developed countries, it is far beyond the capacity of developing countries and has a significant impact on science and technology, economy and people’s livelihood in developing countries. But the current studies about the “TRIPs-plus rules” either involved in the overall study of intellectual property rights or just analyzed the relationship between pharmaceutical patents and public health, lacking of a systematic and specialized research. As the rapid development of the FTA and the vigorous expansion of the TRIPs-plus rules, China and other developing countries will suffer the challenge of TRIPs-plus rules in the future negotiation of the FTA inevitably. Thus, it’s absolutely necessary to study the patent rules in the FTA framework systematically to clarify the content, origin, influence and developing trend of the “TRIPs-plus rules” and put out countermeasures.This paper takes the U.S.-Korea FTA,EU-Korea FTA and TPP for example, comparing the patent rules in these texts with the clauses in the TRIPs, reveals the content,origin, influence on the developing countries and the expanding trend in future of the “TRIPs-plus rules” of patent. On the basis of comparison and analysis, this paper putting forward countermeasures for developing countries, pointing out that the developing countries should stick to TRIPs and enhance the level of patent protection according to their own interests and accept ability, the developing countries should also join up and make FTA negotiation strategy to improve the ability of negotiation. At the same time, by taking account of China’s present situation in the construction of FTA, the current patent rules status in FTA and the status quo of China’s patent protection, this paper offers some suggestions on the patent rules in future Chinese FTA. This paper suggest that China should actively integrate into the trend of FTA and accelerating the construction of FTA in the future, at the same time, should step up the construction of the intellectual property rights model in FTA to avoid being caught in the "standard clauses" which made by developed countries.