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Ethiopia's W orld T rade O rganization Accession and Maintaining Policy Space in Intellectual Property Policy in the Agreement on Trade‐Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Era: A Preliminary Look at the E thiopian Patent Regime in the Light of the Agreement on Trade‐Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Obligations and Flexibilities
Author(s) -
Birhanu Fikremarkos Merso
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
the journal of world intellectual property
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.334
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 1747-1796
pISSN - 1422-2213
DOI - 10.1111/j.1747-1796.2012.00437.x
Subject(s) - intellectual property , accession , scrutiny , trips architecture , negotiation , international trade , trips agreement , political science , law , business , european union , engineering , transport engineering
After having stayed as an observer for about 6 years, E thiopia formally applied for membership at the W orld T rade O rganization ( WTO ) in January 2003, and it has since been going through the accession negotiations. One of the areas of scrutiny by the WTO members as part of the accession process has been E thiopia's intellectual property ( IP ) regime. Indeed, a number of issues were raised in relation to E thiopia's IP regime in the three rounds of questions the country received from WTO members. In its replies to the questions from WTO members, E thiopia has promised to revise this law in the light of the A greement on T rade‐ R elated A spects of I ntellectual P roperty R ights (the TRIPS Agreement). The accession process has thus given impetus for E thiopia to embark on a reform of its IP regime, which is being carried out in two fronts: the enactment of new IP laws in areas where little or none existed before, and revising existing IP laws, particularly the patent law. This article analyzes E thiopia's patent regime in light of the TRIPS Agreement, identifies the obligations that might need to be met as part of the accession, as well as the flexibilities that might be available to E thiopia as a least‐developed country ( LDC ).