TRIPS Article 2: Paris, Berne, Rome and Washington Carried In

In one line

Article 2.1 makes Paris Articles 1 to 12 and 19 binding on every WTO Member, and Article 2.2 says nothing in TRIPS cuts down what those four conventions already require.

Article 2.1

"In respect of Parts II, III and IV of this Agreement, Members shall comply with Articles 1 through 12, and Article 19, of the Paris Convention (1967)."

Three things follow.

Paris now binds non parties. A WTO Member that never joined Paris must nonetheless comply with those Articles, and a breach is a breach of TRIPS, actionable before a panel.

The reference is to the Stockholm Act of 14 July 1967, as footnote 2 states, so it is the current substantive text and not an earlier Act.

The incorporation is partial and deliberate. Articles 1 to 12 are the substantive provisions and Article 19 preserves the right to make special agreements. Articles 13 to 18 and 20 to 30, being the administrative and final clauses on the Assembly, the International Bureau, finances, revision and disputes, are left out, because those govern the Paris Union and a WTO Member is not thereby made a member of the Union.

Article 6ter comes in with the rest, and that is why the 1995 agreement between WIPO and the WTO had to provide, in its Article 3, that the International Bureau administers the emblems procedures for WTO Members under the Paris Article 6ter machinery.

What Paris Articles 1 to 12 and 19 actually contain

Article 1: the Union, and the scope of industrial property.

Article 2: national treatment for nationals of Union countries.

Article 3: assimilation of certain categories of person.

Article 4: the right of priority, twelve months for patents and utility models, six for designs and marks.

Article 4bis: independence of patents obtained for the same invention in different countries.

Article 4ter: the inventor's right to be mentioned.

Article 4quater: patentability not to be refused because sale is restricted by domestic law.

Article 5: importation, failure to work, compulsory licences and the four year and three year time bars, plus marking and grace periods for fees.

Article 5bis to 5quinquies: grace period for fees, patents in international traffic, process patents on imported products, and industrial designs.

Article 6: independence of marks registered in different countries.

Article 6bis: well known marks.

Article 6ter: State emblems, official hallmarks and emblems of intergovernmental organisations.

Article 6quater to 6septies: assignment of marks, protection as registered in the country of origin, service marks, collective marks, and marks registered by an agent.

Article 7 and 7bis: nature of the goods, and collective marks.

Article 8: trade names, protected without filing or registration.