Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights :

The provisions on enforcement are contained in Part III of the Agreement, which is divided into five Sections. The first Section lays down general obligations that all enforcement procedures must meet. These are notably aimed at ensuring their effectiveness and that certain basic principles of due process are met. The following Sections deal with civil and administrative procedures and remedies, provisional measures, special requirements related to border measures and criminal procedures. These provisions have two basic objectives: one is to ensure that effective means of enforcement are available to right holders; the second is to ensure that enforcement procedures are applied in such a manner as to avoid the creation of barriers to legitimate trade and to provide for safeguards against their abuse.

The Agreement makes a distinction between infringing activity in general, in respect of which civil judicial procedures and remedies must be available, and counterfeiting and piracy — the more blatant and egregious forms of infringing activity — in respect of which additional procedures and remedies must also be provided, namely border measures and criminal procedures. For this purpose, counterfeit goods are in essence defined as goods involving slavish copying of trademarks, and pirated goods as goods which violate a reproduction right under copyright or a related right.