Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1755295 African Journal of Social Sciences Volume 1 Number 1 February 2011 pp. 37-64 37 The Implications of ‘TRIPS’ Agreement 1994 of the World Trade Organisation for the Developing Countries Kato Gogo Kingston School of Law, University of East London, England ABSTRACT The obligations of WTO members to grant substantial protection to IP rights resulted from concerns of technology exporting countries, like the U.S. in particular, afraid of losing out to newly industrialised countries culminated in the adoption of the Trade- Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement in 1994 of the World Trade Organisation (Helpman, 1993). The case against IP protection is that, simply put, for developing countries the cost outweighs the benefits. The traditional view is that developing countries receive little or nothing for the price they pay in granting foreign monopolies over technology and industry within their national borders (ICC, 1996). It is further argued that the IP rights stifle domestic innovation and impede the diffusion of technology in the developing countries. Therefore, with quite some justification, developing countries considers TRIPS as an instrument serving the interests of rich countries (Maskus, 1993). This paper argues that: (1) TRIPS serve the best interest of developed countries and that the MFN clause of the GATT/WTO has little or no significant benefits to the developing countries with regards to the TRIPS; (2) TRIPS cannot guarantee transfer of technology from the developed countries to the developing countries; (3) Consumers in developing countries will have to pay for technology even if no transfer of technology takes place to their respective home countries; (4) Legal protection of IP rights is not a necessary condition for technology transfer (Abbot, 1998); and (5) That TRIPS constitute exploitation machinery for economic control of the developing countries by the developed nations in the WTO (Primo Braga, 1995). Keywords : WTO, Intellectual property, liberalization, TRIPS INTRODUCTION The basic concept of intellectual property right is that the product of human intellect is protected to enable the owner of the intellectual output to benefit from the outcome of their intellectual product or process. In order to be protected, the product of the intellectual efforts has to be ‘owned’ by someone, that is, it has to be ‘property’ 1 . 1 Trevor Adams & Alexis Longshaw, Commercial Law & Practice (Guildford: College of Law, 2005) p. 125