Intellectual property rights and the WTO: a southern perspective

1. Introduction 1.1. Forms of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) The concept of intellectual property is far from being a recent one. Even in the times of the Middle Ages, merchants were often granted exclusive rights to inventions via « letters of patent ». In fact, the modern patent system may be traced directly back to a statute passed in Venice in 1474. The most common forms of IPRs, currently in vogue, are the following: patents; copyrights; trademarks; trade secrets and plant breeders r..