Trading in Knowledge

THE WIPO AGENDA

Chapter 8

New Treaty Development andHarmonization of IntellectualProperty Law

Ruth L Okediji¹

INTRODUCTION

The prolonged negotiation of TRIPS might have suggested that international efforts in regulating intellectual property would abate for some time. Instead, however, two significant treaties in the area of copyright were negotiated in 1996, not long after the obligatory implementation of the TRIPS Agreement in developed countries. The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) Copyright Treaty (WCT) and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT) deal with a new and very much unsettled frontier in copyright law, namely the application of copyright in the digital economy. In addition to these treaties, WIPO has ...