What is the role of the WTO, and what is the scope and intent of ...

[Beheh]

What is the role of the WTO, and what is the scope and intent of its TRIPS agreement?

Question 2

What is a cross-licensing agreement? How do large software companies use such agreements? Do you think their use is fair to small software development firms? Why or why not?

[Natalie4ever]

Answer to Question 1

The World Trade Organization (WTO) deals with rules of international trade based on WTO agreements that are negotiated and signed by representatives of the worlds trading nations.

The WTO developed the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, also known as the TRIPS Agreement, to establish minimum levels of protection that each government must provide to the intellectual property of all WTO members. This binding agreement requires member governments to ensure that intellectual property rights can be enforced under their laws and that penalties for infringement are tough enough to deter further violations.

Answer to Question 2

This is an agreement in which each company agrees not to sue the other over patent infringements. Large companies, such as Microsoft, IBM, Sun Microsystems, and Hewlett-Packard, go into agreement with one another to obtain the rights to technologies that it might use in its products. This provides a tremendous amount of development freedom without the risk of expensive litigation. It does not seem fair that small businesses must pay an additional cost, from which larger companies are exempt, to license the patents they use.

[Beheh]

Gracias!

[mjenn52]

Thanks for the timely response, appreciate it