Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)

 TRIPS is an international legal agreement between all the member nations of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

 It sets down minimum standards for the regulation by national governments of many forms of intellectual property (IP) as applied to nationals of other WTO member nations.

 TRIPS was negotiated at the end of the Uruguay Round of (GATT) in 1994 and was administered by the WTO.

 It 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.

 The Doha declaration stated that TRIPS should be interpreted in light of the goal "to promote access to medicines for all."

 TRIPS requires WTO members to provide copyright rights, geographical indications, industrial designs, integrated circuit layout-designs, patents, new plant varieties, trademarks.

 The obligations under TRIPS apply equally to all member states, however developing countries were allowed extra time to implement the applicable changes to their national laws.