Essay: International business and the TRIPS Agreement

“International business is claimed to be as old as the history of mankind itself” Even Hammurabi’s Code of laws contained some rules which are related to business law in 2000 BC. Another example is The Rhodian maritime code or Lex Rhodia was introduced by the Mediterranean community, in the second or third century BC, which was used by Greeks and Romans, is a renowned code which on record incorporated within its tenets the principle of maritime law and maritime insurance.
A business is making goods or providing services by any organisation. Goods are physical products such as phones, cars but services are non-physical products such as cleaning services or security services. According to Companies House a record breaking 581,173 businesses were registered with Companies House last year showing an accelerated increase on previous years with 526,447 and 484,224 recorded in 2013 and 2012 respectively. This statistic shows that how the business develops amazingly in the local area. Another character of business situated international business which across the international borders, Robock and Simmonds defined international business as “international business as a field of management training that deals with the special features of business activities that cross national boundaries”. Also Daniels and Radebaugh define international business as “all business transactions that involve two or more countries” it is possible to divide up international business into three categories trade, investment (e.g. direct or indirect), intellectual licensing of technology and intellectual property (e.g. trademarks, patents, and copyrights) such as well known brands are McDonald’s, Nike.
There is various kind of sources of international business law. The role of international business law is to assist in the conduct of international business. Article of 38 of the Statue of the International Court of Justice (1945) illustrates of the source of international law which are, International conventions, international custom or general practice, general principles of law recognized by civilized nations and judicial decision and scholarly writing. Related with international and international business, the law exists to create reliable standards for companies to follow**. It is essential to establish an order in international business law and it comes to mean one purpose of the international business law is establishing standards, being said that It is the standardization of fundamental business practices worldwide. In international relations more significant international agreements are called treaties. Such as the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (1994) and known as TRIPS Agreement. TRIPS Agreement serves to standardization of intellectual property. David Nimmer described TRIPS as “the highest expression to date of binding intellectual property law in the international area”. Additionally, this kind of treaties serve to minimize the risk because every international business transaction might have carried some risks. Also, the purpose of international business law tries to minimize the possible risk with TRIPS Agreement in the area of intellectual property. For instance, a company which enters a licensing agreement in a country which is a member of TRIPS Agreement in willing to enter a business in a foreign country. The problem might have occurred here because it is important to know that intellectual property is under protection in that country or easy to be disclosure by the rivals. If the company decided to enter a business in a foreign country which is member of TRIPS Agreement, risk on company’s shoulder will decrease but in a foreign country which is not a member of TRIPS Agreement, it is possible to withdraw to enter a business because of possible risks as mentioned above. Especially this problem might occur in less developed countries and TRIPS Agreement creates a balance between developed countries and developing countries. Ratification of the TRIPS Agreement has a significant role in intellectual property rights’ reforms in developing countries. TRIPS Agreement constitutes minimum standards for the protection of intellectual rights such as copyright, trademarks, geographical indications, patent and industrial design, integrated circuit layout design and undisclosed information (known as trade secrets or confidential information). Even ratified TRIPS Agreement is one step, a condition for international peace. Closely related to this point, in article 67 regulates technical cooperation between members, especially between develop and developing countries, one of the highest priority of the Agreement. Also, one of TRIPS Agreement’s feature is including about Dispute Settlement. Disputes arising under the TRIPS Agreement will involve an examination into the consistency of a Member’s domestic intellectual property laws and the TRIPS Agreement. Dispute settlement related to intellectual property,  sixteen countries apply for the dispute settlement so far and the most countries who applied for dispute settlement are European Communities with seven disputes, the USA with six disputes and Australia with eight disputes, although, as less developed countries, only Pakistan, India and Indonesia applied for the dispute settlement. According to information from WTO, mostly dispute of TRIPS Agreement appeared between highly developed countries. This essay will examine the scope and purpose of the international business law, and in this respect it is hoped to explain how international business law achieved its any purpose with TRIPS Agreement is related to intellectual property.