“The beauty of the principle of national treatment is that it allows countries the autonomy to develop and enforce their own laws, while meeting the demands for international protection. Effectively, national treatment is a mechanism of international protection without harmonization.” Lionel Bently & Brad Sherman, Intellectual Property Law 5 (2001).
national treatment
national treatment. Intellectual property. The policy or practice of a country that accords the citizens of other countries the same intellectual-property protection as it gives its own citizens, with no formal treaty of reciprocity required. • The principle of national treatment underlay the first international intellectual-property treaties in the 19th century, the Paris and Berne Conventions, and is also embodied in the TRIPs Agreement. Cf. RECIPROCITY(3); UNIVERSALITY.
