The 1994 World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of International Property Rights (TRIPS) contains standards of copyright protection and enforcement measures that must be observed by WTO members. TRIPS descended from the Uruguay Round negotiations of the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT), which was formed to govern international relations in the field of trade and economic endeavors with a view to raising standards of living, ensuring full employment and expanding the production and exchange of good.

TRIPS is not an entirely new set of standards. Rather, it looks back to landmark treaties in the intellectual property and synthesizes them into a new treaty. Notably, it incorporates the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property.

Two notable provisions in TRIPS are its national treatment and most-favored nation (MFN) provisions. In Article 3, TRIPS requires that each member should accord to the nationals of other members treatment no less favorable than that it accords to its own nationals with regard to the protection of intellectual property, subject to some exceptions. This concept merely requires signatory nations to apply their existing copyright laws non-discriminatorily toward foreign copyright holders. The national treatment standard found in TRIPS allows a state to use exceptions provided for in the Berne Convention as well as three other treaties administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization covering various intellectual property issues. Furthermore, the term "intellectual property" as defined in TRIPS is not an all-encompassing term. It only includes seven subjects explicitly listed in TRIPS. These subjects include: copyrights and related rights, trademarks, geographical indications, industrial designs, patents, integrated circuit designs, and trade secrets or confidential information.

The MFN clauses in Article 4 of TRIPS generally prevent a party to TRIPS from offering a better intellectual property deal to one WTO nation over other WTO nations. There are four exceptions to this general provision. These include an advantage that one nation may give another based on international agreements of a general nature not confined to intellectual property protection.

In Part III of TRIPS, the Agreement sets forth its enforcement measures. They include detailed standards for civil, administrative, and criminal procedures and remedies for the enforcement against intellectual property piracy. TRIPS makes clear that enforcement measures must be applied by the WTO members, and that these measures must generally be expeditious, fair and equitable, not unnecessarily complicated or costly, and applied in such a manner as to avoid the creation of barriers to legitimate trade.

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