The title gives a very precise guide to the contents of this book, one which is at once both comprehensive, and a masterpiece of selection. That in itself is a considerable achievement in the face of the eight years of negotiation and drafting which gave rise to the TRIPS Agreement. The extensive bibliography more than hints at the pruning which took place in order to produce a book which should prove invaluable to those advising on, implementing, and administering the Agreement.

The TRIPS Agreement grew out of the Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations. Intellectual property issues had already reared their head in GATT’s sphere of international trade and tariffs during the Tokyo Round of negotiation between 1973 and 1979, but no concrete action resulted after the report of a Committee of Experts. Meanwhile, the problem of a growing trade in pirated and counterfeit goods continued to disturb intellectual property right owners and their governments. Other international Conventions govern both some of the substantive intellectual property rights, and procedures designed to facilitate application and multi-country acquisition of rights; and these are administered by WIPO (the World Intellectual Property Organization). As Daniel Gervais points