Turkmenistan’s potential accession to the WTO would mean that this country would become a member of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). TRIPS is an international legal agreement between all members of the WTO. It is the most comprehensive multilateral regulation of intellectual property. It concerns copyright and related rights, trademarks, geographical indications, industrial designs, patents, including the protection of new varieties of plants, layout-designs of integrated circuits and undisclosed information including trade secrets and test data. Firstly, the Agreement lays out the minimum standards of protection to be provided by each Member including the rights to be conferred and permissible exceptions to those rights, and the minimum duration of protection. Secondly, the Agreement sets up general principles applicable to all intellectual property rights enforcement procedures. Thirdly, the Agreement makes sure that the TRIPS obligations are respected and breaches of law are subject to the WTO’s dispute settlement procedures.
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