Research Guides: Intellectual Property Law: Home

Flexibilities in Foreign Laws

As part of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), 1869 U.N.T.S. 299, 33 I.L.M. 1197, countries within the agreement are permitted to take into consideration their economic and development needs and amend their intellectual property laws. These individual departures from the treaty text are termed "flexibilities."

Database on Flexibilities in the Intellectual Property System

Contains data drawn from WIPO documents on Patent Related Flexibilities in the Multilateral Legal Framework and their Legislative Implementation at the National and Regional Levels. The database allows searches for implementation of flexibilities in national IP laws in selected jurisdictions.
TRIPS Flexibilities Database
The TRIPS (Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Flexibilities Database contains instances when authorities have invoked, planned to invoke, or have been asked to invoke a TRIPS flexibility for public health reasons, in particular to assure access to medicines. Not all instances listed have been executed. If you are interested only in instances where the flexibility has been executed you can use the filter in the 'executed' column.

Guide to Legal Writing and Style
Guide to print and online resources for legal writing.

U.S. Patent Laws and Regulations
From the USPTO.
U.S Trademark Laws and Regulations
From the USPTO
Copyright Act
U.S. Copyright Office.
Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Pub. L. 105-304
Summary from the Copyright Office. Public Law 105-304 (DMCA) (1998), codified at 17 U.S.C. 1201.
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (Cornell LII)
Impact of Uruguay Round Agreements Act on U.S. Law
Effect on U.S. law of Uruguay Round, which implemented the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).

U.S. Const. art. I, §. 8, cl. 8 (Patent and Copyright Clause)
"The Congress shall have power . . . To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries"