14TH MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE
Post-MC14 Briefing note
Intellectual property
Non-violation and situation complaints (NVSCs)
In general, disputes in the WTO involve allegations that a member has violated a WTO agreement. But, in some situations, a WTO member can bring a case to the Dispute Settlement Body even when an agreement has not been violated. Complaints of this type are called a non-violation and situation complaint (NVSC). NVSCs are allowed if one WTO member can show that it has been deprived of a legitimately expected benefit because of another member’s action, or because of any other situation that exists.
Non-violation and situation complaints are possible for goods and services. However, in Article 64.2 of the Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), members agreed they would not initiate such complaints under the TRIPS Agreement for a period of five years following the entry into force of the WTO Agreement (i.e. 1995–99). In the meantime, members agreed to discuss how and to what extent (“scope and modalities”) such complaints could be brought to WTO dispute settlement. The agreement not to initiate TRIPS non-violation and situation cases (the "moratorium") and the mandate to discuss scope and modalities were subsequently extended – most recently from the 13th to the 14th Ministerial Conference (WT/L/1194).
At the 14th Ministerial Conference (MC14), held in Yaoundé, Cameroon, in March 2026, no agreement on a further extension of the moratorium on TRIPS NVSCs was reached. The moratorium, originally foreseen in Article 64.2, thus lapsed on 30 March 2026 with the closure of the Ministerial Conference.