The state of international intellectual property (IP) law has changed dramatically for Canada in the previous four decades. For example, in 1990 Canada became a party to the Patent Cooperation Treaty; it acceded in 1996 to the substantive provisions of the Stockholm Act (1967) of the Paris Convention (whereas previously it was a party to the London Act [1934] and the administrative provisions of the Stockholm Act [1967]); in 1998 Canada acceded to the Paris Act (1971) of the Berne Convention (whereas previously it was a party to the Rome Act [1928] and the administrative provisions of the Stockholm Act [1967]).
These changes, however, pale in significance with that of the integration of substantive IP rules into international trade agreements, starting with the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (WTO Agreement).
This paper reviews and assesses, from a Canadian perspective, the significance of integrating the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights into the WTO Agreement as well as of integrating comprehensive IP chapters into bilateral and plurilateral free trade agreements and their implications for substantive IP obligations and dispute settlement proceedings.
