Copyright and Neighbouring Rights in the Context of Integration: The Experience of the WTO and the EAEU

The relevance of the topic of the study is determined by the necessity to analyze the interaction between the EAEU and WTO law in the field of copyright and neighbouring rights, in order to identify the similarities and differences in the regulatory mechanisms used by them. When writing the article, the general (analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, abstraction, comparison, etc.) and special methods of scientific cognition (comparative legal, formal-dogmatic and historical legal methods) were used. The normative foundation of the study was based by the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, the Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union, international treaties within the EAEU, EAEU advisory acts and national legislation of the EAEU member states. The study’s findings indicated that the regulation of copyright and related rights within the WTO and EAEU exhibits similarities, attributable to the utilization of universal international agreements on intellectual property as their regulatory foundation within these organizations. The incongruence between the range of universal international agreements which are basis of the WTO and EAEU law precludes the potential for further development of EAEU legislation on intellectual property beyond the parameters established by the WTO. The divergences observed in the WTO and EAEU legal frameworks are attributable to discrepancies in the scope and application of TRIPS and the EAEU Treaty, the incongruence of the rationales for their adoption, and the broader array of intellectual property-related challenges that the EAEU is tasked with addressing. The analysis indicates that the involvement of states in international organizations and integration associations does not inherently ensure the success of the harmonization process of legislation on copyright and neighbouring rights. The attainment of outcomes from this process is a gradual process that unfolds over time.