Intellectual Property - A Vital National Interest For Ecuador

In May 1998, Ecuador enacted a new Intellectual Property Law, which raison d'etre was to provide a more adequate and efficient protection to intellectual creation.

The international principles issued by the WTO and specifically the ADPIC, have been incorporated into this new legal body, guaranteeing in this manner transparency in the obtention, exercise and protection of copyrights, industrial property, and plant obtentions; all of them an important part of intellectual property.

The principles of "national treatment", "most favored nation", "exhausting rights", and "minimum standards" now enjoy full legal recognition within the law; and Ecuador joins into the world tendency to achieve worldwide harmony. Each of these principles tends to achieve an equal treatment as granted by most laws to their national and foreign citizens, without restricting the privileges enjoyed by nationals from other countries and acknowledge any of such international treaties which render a minimum