3.9 Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property

Rights (TRIPS), 1994 The WTO's IP annex — the strongest layer: the minimum standards' all-IP coverage (the patents (Art 27-34: the all-fields mandate + the 20-year term), the copyrights (Art 9-14: the Berne incorporation (the software-as-literary-work + the data compilations + the rental rights)), the trademarks (Art 15-21: the signs + the 7-year-renewable minimum), the GIs (Art 22-24), the industrial designs (Art 25-26), the trade secrets' Article 39 (the undisclosed information)), the layout-designs (Art 35-38)); the national treatment + the MFN; the ENFORCEMENT's obligations (the civil-and-administrative-and-criminal procedures + the border measures (the customs' suspension craft) — the IP-as-trade's teeth); the dispute settlement (the WTO's DSM (the sanctions' backing)); the transitional regime (the LDC's extended transition (the 2030s-era extensions — Nepal's position)); the flexibilities (the compulsory licensing (the Article 31's craft + the Doha-Declaration's health faces (the 31bis export system))). Nepal: the WTO member since 23 April 2004 (the TRIPS-bound-with-the LDC's flexibilities).