Members accepting amendment of the TRIPS Agreement

WTO members on 6 December 2005 approved changes to the WTO’s intellectual property (TRIPS) agreement making permanent a decision on patents and public health originally adopted in 2003. This will now be formally built into the TRIPS Agreement when two thirds of the WTO’s members have accepted the change. They originally set themselves until 1 December 2007 to do this. The latest General Council decision of 30 November 2015 (document WT/L/965) extended the deadline to 31 December 2017.

Once two thirds of members have formally accepted it, the amendment will take effect in those members and will replace the 2003 waiver for them. For each of the remaining members: the waiver will continue to apply until that member accepts the amendment and it takes effect.