The Provisions on Geographical Indications in the TRIPS Agreement

This article provides an overview of the provisions on geographical indications contained in the TRIPS Agreement and how they came about in the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations, which took place from 1986 to 1994 and resulted in the establishment of the World Trade Organization. The article underscores the difficulties involved in arriving at international standards in this area of intellectual property by putting the TRIPS provisions on geographical indications in their historical perspective of more than 120 years of international negotiations and by explaining their compromise character in the context of the single undertaking of the Uruguay Round and the continuing discussions at the international level, notably under the Doha Development Agenda.agriculture, geographical indications, intellectual property, WIPO, WTO, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, International Relations/Trade,

Mechanisms in the WTO Framework Aimed at Ensuring Compliance with Obligations under the TRIPS Agreement*

138-148Paper outlines the main features of the Agreement, its general provisions and basic principles as well as the Agreement's transitional arrangements, including technical cooperation. The experience with the implementation of the TRIPS Agreement so far and the work on its development that is under way or envisaged is presented. The monitoring of compliance with the obligations of the Agreement, experience with dispute settlement, the TRIPS built-in agenda, the work on TRIPS-related matters in other areas of the WTO are discussed

Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights and Dispute Settlement under the TRIPS Agreement*

80-88The TRIPS Agreement lays down the domestic procedures and remedies that Members have to provide so that right holders can enforce their intellectual properly rights effectively. The provisions on enforcement are divided into five sections in the Agreement. The first section lays down general obligations that all enforcement procedures must meet. The following sections deal with civil and administrative procedures and remedies, provisional measures, special requirements related to border measures and criminal procedures. The paper discusses these provisions of TRIPS in detail

The Provisions on Geographical Indications in the TRIPS Agreement

This article provides an overview of the provisions on geographical indications contained in the TRIPS Agreement and how they came about in the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations, which took place from 1986 to 1994 and resulted in the establishment of the World Trade Organization. The article underscores the difficulties involved in arriving at international standards in this area of intellectual property by putting the TRIPS provisions on geographical indications in their historical perspective of more than 120 years of international negotiations and by explaining their compromise character in the context of the single undertaking of the Uruguay Round and the continuing discussions at the international level, notably under the Doha Development Agenda

Predicting Treatment Outcome in PTSD : A Longitudinal Functional MRI Study on Trauma-Unrelated Emotional Processing

In about 30-50% of patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), symptoms persist after treatment. Although neurobiological research has advanced our understanding of PTSD, little is known about the neurobiology underlying persistence of PTSD. Two functional MRI scans were collected from 72 war veterans with and without PTSD over a 6-To 8-month interval, during which PTSD patients received trauma-focused therapy. All participants performed a trauma-unrelated emotional processing task in the scanner. Based on post-Treatment symptom severity, a distinction was made between remitted and persistent patients. Behavioral and imaging measures of trauma-unrelated emotional processing were compared between the three groups (remitted patients, N=21; persistent patients, N=22; and combat controls, N=25) with repeated-measures (pre-and post-Treatment) analyses. Second, logistic regression was used to predict treatment outcome. Before and after treatment, persistent patients showed a higher dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and insula response to negative pictures compared with remitted patients and combat controls. Before treatment, persistent patients showed increased amygdala activation in response to negative pictures compared with remitted patients. The remitted patients and combat controls did not differ on the behavioral or imaging measures. Finally, higher dACC, insula, and amygdala activation before treatment were significant predictors of symptom persistence. Our results highlight a pattern of brain activation that may predict poor response to PTSD treatment. These findings can contribute to the development of alternative or additional therapies. Further research is needed to elucidate the heterogeneity within PTSD and describe how differences in neural function are related to treatment outcome. Such approaches are critical for defining parameters to customize PTSD treatment and improve treatment response rates

Predicting Treatment Outcome in PTSD : A Longitudinal Functional MRI Study on Trauma-Unrelated Emotional Processing

In about 30-50% of patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), symptoms persist after treatment. Although neurobiological research has advanced our understanding of PTSD, little is known about the neurobiology underlying persistence of PTSD. Two functional MRI scans were collected from 72 war veterans with and without PTSD over a 6-To 8-month interval, during which PTSD patients received trauma-focused therapy. All participants performed a trauma-unrelated emotional processing task in the scanner. Based on post-Treatment symptom severity, a distinction was made between remitted and persistent patients. Behavioral and imaging measures of trauma-unrelated emotional processing were compared between the three groups (remitted patients, N=21; persistent patients, N=22; and combat controls, N=25) with repeated-measures (pre-and post-Treatment) analyses. Second, logistic regression was used to predict treatment outcome. Before and after treatment, persistent patients showed a higher dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and insula response to negative pictures compared with remitted patients and combat controls. Before treatment, persistent patients showed increased amygdala activation in response to negative pictures compared with remitted patients. The remitted patients and combat controls did not differ on the behavioral or imaging measures. Finally, higher dACC, insula, and amygdala activation before treatment were significant predictors of symptom persistence. Our results highlight a pattern of brain activation that may predict poor response to PTSD treatment. These findings can contribute to the development of alternative or additional therapies. Further research is needed to elucidate the heterogeneity within PTSD and describe how differences in neural function are related to treatment outcome. Such approaches are critical for defining parameters to customize PTSD treatment and improve treatment response rates

Neural correlates of inhibition and contextual cue processing related to treatment response in PTSD

Thirty to fifty percent of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients do not respond to treatment. Understanding the neural mechanisms underlying treatment response could contribute to improve response rates. PTSD is often associated with decreased inhibition of fear responses in a safe environment. Importantly, the mechanism of effective treatment (psychotherapy) relies on inhibition and so-called contextual cue processing. Therefore, we investigate inhibition and contextual cue processing in the context of treatment. Forty-one male war veterans with PTSD and 22 healthy male war veterans (combat controls) were scanned twice with a 6- to 8-month interval, in which PTSD patients received treatment (psychotherapy). We distinguished treatment responders from nonresponders on the base of percentage symptom decrease. Inhibition and contextual cue processing were assessed with the stop-signal anticipation task. Behavioral and functional MRI measures were compared between PTSD patients and combat controls, and between responders and nonresponders using repeated measures analyses. PTSD patients showed behavioral and neural deficits in inhibition and contextual cue processing at both time points compared with combat controls. These deficits were unaffected by treatment; therefore, they likely represent vulnerability factors or scar aspects of PTSD. Second, responders showed increased pretreatment activation of the left inferior parietal lobe (IPL) during contextual cue processing compared with nonresponders. Moreover, left IPL activation predicted percentage symptom improvement. The IPL has an important role in contextual cue processing, and may therefore facilitate the effect of psychotherapy. Hence, increased left IPL activation may represent a potential predictive biomarker for PTSD treatment response