This is a study on the compliance of China to the World Trade Organization¡¦s (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) before and after China¡¦s accession to WTO. The study on pre-accession period focuses on the enactment of China¡¦s patent, copyright and trademark laws in the light of the provisions of the TRIPS Agreement. It also focuses China¡¦s adoption, revisions and amendments of the constitution, administrative, criminal, civil, judicial, and legal professional laws and procedures to make enforcements of the intellectual property rights law effective. It likewise shows how the enactment of these laws consistent with the TRIPS Agreement is contributing to the development of the institutions of private property and the rule of law. The result shows that while the pre-accession to WTO would indicate China¡¦s substantial compliance to the TRIPS Agreement, it also focuses on some weaknesses in the laws on the determination of what violation would constitute a criminal act. This problem would manifest later after accession. The post-accession period sharply focuses on the performance of China in the enforcement of their obligations under the TRIPS regime after 2001. The assessment of China¡¦s performance in enforcement focuses on the infringement cases, the complaints filed against China before the dispute settlement mechanisms of WTO, and the multilateral and bilateral reviews on China¡¦s laws and enforcement effort after its accession to WTO. The result shows the over-reliance of China on the administrative rather than the judicial remedies in its internal enforcement effort which resulted in the weak performance of infringement deterrence. The result also notes the shift from the reliance on internal to external measures in the enforcement of intellectual property rights by the trading partners headed by US. The result of the study which shows continuing reforms in the intellectual, civil, criminal and administrative laws after WTO accession to precisely address the issues raised against China in its enforcement effort is an indication of China¡¦s willingness to play by the international rules. While the reforms have not been met with optimism, the WTO¡¦s TRIPS regime provides a sufficient mechanism to deal with China¡¦s TRIPS violations, and more importantly China is positively responding to it.

China¡¦s IPR problem has been an important issue since 1979, and particularly so when competition between China and U.S for power and interest. The Chinese government directed several IPR policies which have had low efficiency. This research analyses the policy-making, the implementation, the feedback, and the adaptation of China¡¦s IPR policies by using system theory and public policy theory. Another focus of this research is to demonstrate China¡¦s problems in effect of internal and external influences. The research found that the formulation of China¡¦s IPR policies is deeply affected by internal and external factors, and the effect factor of implementation process in China is almostly the most important one, among the factors.

In this dissertation I examine the reasons why the U.S. film industry lost the GATT-Uruguay Round negotiations on audiovisual services and intellectual property rights (IPRs) related to copyright. I revisit the political economy approach to communication and implement Mosco's (1996) suggestions on the approach's renewal. Mosco notes that political economists of communication thematically view the state as supporting transnational business (1996, p. 94). However, Jarvie's (1992) analysis of the relationship between the U.S. government and film industry between 1920 and 1950 suggests that this 'support' theme does not adequately capture the often antagonistic and unproductive relationship between the two parties. I extend Jarvie's (1992) work by developing themes from his scholarship and applying them to a case study on the Uruguay Round. I review the literature on the media-cultural imperialism thesis and focus on Herbert Schiller's (1969 [1992], 1976, 1989) scholarship. Schiller's thesis implies that outcomes in international relations are dictated by domestic determinants such as the influence of corporate lobbyists. However, I argue that the reasons why Hollywood lost lie not in domestic determinants alone, but in a broader perspective (derived from the discipline of international relations) that focuses on the interaction between domestic trade politics and international relations (Putnam, 1988 [1993]). Putnam characterises international negotiations as an interactive process involving the bargaining between negotiators and the separate discussions each delegation has with constituents in its domestic market on the ratification of the agreement. I assess themes from Jarvie's work and propositions from Schiller's thesis using Putnam's (1988 [1993]) two-level analysis and empirical evidence from primary documents and thirty-five interviews conducted over a three-year period (1994 to 1997) with U.S. and European negotiators and film executives. I argue that U.S. domestic trade politics hampered efforts by U.S. negotiators to reach a bilateral accord on audiovisual services and IPRs related to copyright because of linkages forged by EU Member States between progress in those talks and progress in talks on agriculture, maritime transport services, geographic indications related to wines and anti-dumping. A second obstacle to a bilateral accord was an influential hawkish minority of the Hollywood lobby, who set an aggressive agenda for U.S. negotiators and set off a chain reaction in the final moments of the Round that led to Hollywood's defeat. Finally, I present an alternative scenario to the argument (cf. Waregne, 1994; Dehousse and Havelange, 1994; Joachimowicz and Berenboom, 1994) that the French government dictated the outcome of the audiovisual services and IPRs negotiations. My scenario emphasises the preeminent status of the General Affairs Council, the role of EU Member States other than France, and Commission efforts to forge a bilateral deal. In the end, the hawks dictated the outcome of the audiovisual services talks, while a majority of EU Member States dictated the outcome of the talks on IPRs related to copyright.

Magister Legum - LLM / Many critics have questioned whether the protection of the IPRs would benefit developing countries. It was argued in this paper that developing countires have the interest in protecting IPRs as well. However, it was showed that the benefit of this protection can be realized only if there is a fair rule of the game to all players in the multilateral trading system. The general objective of this research was to examine the current status of IPRs protection and the levels of TRIPS compliance by Rwanda in the area of copyright. / South Africa

Intellectual property rights (IPR) have become a major problem in the relationship between the industrialized West and the developing South, primarily because the West demands that developing countries adopt and enforce Western IPR. Since the relationship between US corporations and Chinese businesses is among the most successful and at the center of the current process of globalization, IPR have been a major cause of conflict and controversy between them and serve as an exemplar for this thesis. I argue, first, that the reason that a large number of Chinese businesses, especially privately-owned small and medium-sized enterprises, infringe foreign IPR lies in the nature of the difference between what have been mostly low-tech traditional Chinese businesses and high-tech industrial economies, to which intellectual property laws belong. Second, I demonstrate that the steady improvement of intellectual property protection in the more successful areas of development in the Chinese economy suggests that the solution for improved IPR protection in China and perhaps other emerging nations will follow, not precede, the development and transformation of a low-tech pre-industrial economy into an industrial high-tech economy.

Online Arbitration is an online alternative dispute resolution (OADR) process that resolves disputes without litigation outside national courts. Due to globalisation and increased e-commerce, international commercial online arbitration has become more important and it is therefore essential to look at the legal and technical requirements for a more effective international online arbitration regime or lex electronica arbitralis, specifically focused on disputes that arise from cross-border, low value e-commerce transactions for both goods and services, and especially between online businesses and consumers (B2C), but also between online businesses (B2B). The lex electronica arbitralis should lead to swift outcomes that will be able to be enforced efficiently anywhere in the world, without impairing the requirements of accountability, due process, efficiency, impartiality, independence, fairness, transparency, etc. The 'UNCITRAL Technical Notes on ODR of 2016' follows a non-binding guideline format, so there is currently no legal outline that exclusively regulates online arbitration. Due to this lacuna, the guidelines of the 'Technical Notes' and rules of traditional international commercial arbitration will have to be used as far as they accommodate online arbitration. Due to its unique features, online arbitration however needs an exclusive set of rules that will deal with its legal and technical requirements. The most comprehensive manner to have realised an online arbitration regime or lex electronica arbitralis would have been by the proposed 'UNCITRAL Draft Procedural Rules (DPR) on OADR for Cross-Border E-Commerce Transactions'. Unfortunately, since Working Group III (WG.III), who was mandated by UNCITRAL to compile the 'DPR', could not manage to reach consensus on many aspects, the 'Technical Notes' was adopted instead. The thesis will review WG.III's progress to complete the 'DPR' and how it eventually led to the adoption of the 'Technical Notes'. The 'Technical Notes' still leaves many questions and uncertainties on many of online arbitration's legal and technical requirements that will be pointed out. The thesis will indicate that these legal and technical requirements do not compose insurmountable challenges, but that UNCITRAL will have to address them when they decide to revise the 'Technical Notes' in the future or when they decide to compile a set of legal standards exclusively for online arbitration in the future. The focus will also be directed to the future of international arbitration legislation in a developing country such as SA, while a plea is made to SA lawmakers to make provision for online arbitration.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 111-126). / This thesis examines video games, copyright law and gamers' attitudes to copyright infringement, with particular reference to South Africa. The work provides an overview of the debates about copyright law and digital media, and offers an analysis of attitudes expressed by South African gamers about copyright infringement, popularly termed 'piracy'. The thesis reveals that, while about 70% of the gamers in this study share content illegally, they express complex and varying motivations for doing so, and have various and conflicting means of understanding the supposed illegality of the act. Some of the issues raised by participants in this study relate to contested perspectives on Digital Rights Management (DRM). In this work, I argue that DRM erodes civil liberties and does not necessarily extend the interests of gaming corporations. In this regard, the thesis explores alternative strategies to the restrictive approaches adopted by advocates of DRM as well as prohibitive copyright laws and multilateral agreements on intellectual property. In essence, this work intends to establish middle ground between gamers, who place a high premium on usability and affordability of gaming products, and the gaming corporations, who are interested in extending market share as well as protecting what they deem to be their intellectual property.

<p>The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) ia a multilateral international treaty introduced by the World Trade Organization (WTO) that came into effect on 1 June 1995. At a basic level it attempted to establish minimum standards for the regulation of intellectual property rights within those countries that are members of the WTO and signatories to it. This thesis served a dual purpose. The first leg was to embark on an investigation into TRIPS, criticallt analyzing the provisions of the Agreement. The important aim here was to analyze and discover whether TRIPS is sensitive to weaker countries. The second leg was to probe within the the legislative framework of South Africa and determine whether South Africa as a &quot / developing copuntry&quot / , has complied with the demands as expressed by TRIPS. This investigation was done with specific reference to South African patent law.</p>

The graduation thesis surveys present treatment of intellectual property rights and their protection in WTO. The thesis briefly characterizes WTO and describes the development of protection of intellectual property before the TRIPS agreement was concluded. Furthermore, the thesis focuses on the TRIPS agreement in detail because it is the most important instrument of protection of intellectual property rights at present. The thesis critically evaluates the regulation of particular legal institutes in TRIPS agreement and describes disputes of WTO member states in the relevant field. At the end of the thesis there is an outline of means for execution of the rights, present problems in the particular field and possible future development of the regulation.

For the past two decades, intellectual property law has been the fastest growing and most dynamic field in Indonesia. But, despite impressive and extensive legal reform conducted by the Indonesian government in the area, intellectual property laws remain very difficult to enforce. Ignorance of intellectual property law is widespread within the country and protection of intellectual property rights is both practically and legally weak.