Pivotal agreements—like the Paris Convention (1883) for industrial property, the Berne Convention (1886) for literary and artistic works, and the Madrid Agreement (1891) for international registration—laid the foundation for today’s global IP framework. WIPO, created in 1967, and the World Trade Organization (WTO), created in 1995, later emerged alongside other bodies to oversee the four main types of IP—patents (inventions), trademarks (brand identity), copyrights (creative works), and trade secrets (like customer data and algorithms). The Challenges of Regulating an Evolving Digital World
The WTO sought to harmonize trade rules amid accelerating globalization in the 1990s. Its Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement aimed to standardize global IP protections but has struggled to do so. Only WTO members can participate in the agreement, excluding some African, Middle Eastern, and Central Asian countries สล็อต