Rights and Duties of Broadcasting Organizations: Analysis of WIPO Treaty on the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations

Transmission of data through a signal based approach has been made possible by the broadcasting organizations, but it has come at certain costs. The problem posed by incidences of signal theft induced the member states of World Intellectual Property Organization to create a new international tool in the form of a treaty to tackle this problem. The paper seeks to analyse this in the light of present legal regime where protection is granted to the broadcasting organizations, and whether granting further protection in the form of exclusive rights will serve the interest of developing nations or not. The representatives of developing nations have made it clear that if the treaty is not based on elementary and absolutely necessary rights, it should be abandoned. A study of the treaty makes it clear that the primary purpose of treaty is not to tackle signal theft, which makes its primary agenda ancillary in nature.