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Here at Techdirt often talk ratchet author - that for three hundred years of changes in copyright have always been in one direction: longer, wider and stronger. But there is a group of countries where the ratchet of copyright is not yet in place. They are called the least developed countries - LDCs - where many of the poorest people on the planet live. This is because the main agreement on trade in intellectual property rights, called related TRIPS WFP explicitly provides for a transitional period of ten years, during which they are required to meet all the stringent requirements that exist for the granting of intellectual monopolies. In addition, the TRIPS Agreement states:

TRIPS Council, when a reasoned member LDCs request extensions of this period.

And an article on infojustice.org Notes:

last November
LDCs exercise their rights under TRIPS standards, and a petition to the TRIPS Council request an unconditional extension of the transition period as long as the country continues to be a less developed country. The current transitional period expires on 1 July 2013.

Article 66.1 of the TRIPS Agreement provides for an exemption of LDCs in renewable TRIPS obligations. The reason is that the LDCs need flexibility to develop a viable technological base and meet their limits, and that the level of TRIPS on IP protection can be an obstacle to the achievement of these objectives.

U.S.

EU and regularly insist that countries continue to go to the letter, but it seems they are more than willing to ignore its obligations regarding the granting a new exemption for LDCs:

developed countries, notably the United States and the European Union proposed a lower and inconvenient treatment for an extension of incredibly short time of five years, with restrictive conditions in less developed countries have the right to be exempted from the application of the TRIPS Agreement of the WTO.



particularly problematic is the requirement that the least developed countries, in accordance with a clause of "no retreat" TRIPS-plus a state that prevents LDCs rear bearing (is namely to provide a lesser degree of protection IP) of existing laws, even if they harm their development problems.
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