Settlement of Intellectual Property Disputes at the WTO : Recent Trends and Challenges

International law has traditionally evolved to settle legal disputes between States and private parties by providing for economic retaliation and demand for repatriation in case of trade in goods. When it comes to disputes between States diplomatic efforts have attempted to prevent trade ‘wars’ from affecting the movement of goods. However with the advent of intellectual property, dispute settlement has been a cause of concern. Citing deficiencies in other international institutions the WTO has taken upon itself the role of creating minimum standards of intellectual property and interpreting the same with the backing of an ‘effective’ dispute settlement process. This paper attempts to analyse these disputes and the patterns emerging from the nature of settlement of issues of compliance. What eventually emerges is a picture of challenges ranging from unilateral trade sanctions to free trade agreements which ignore the WTO thus calling for concerted efforts to restore the legitimacy of its dispute settlement process to enable it to justify the role it set out to do at its genesis in Marrakesh two decades ago