- The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), created in 1967, has more than 175 member nations. WIPO administers various intellectual property law treaties and promotes protection of intellectual property worldwide. Almost all members of the United Nations, including the United States, are members.
- The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works is composed of 145 member nations (the United States joined the agreement in 1989). The Berne Convention calls for national treatment of copyrights. Under the agreement, each member country agrees to give the same protection to copyright holders from other nations as it does its own citizens.
- A major stumbling block to the United States' admission into the Berne Convention was that federal law prior to 1978 provided only for a fixed, renewable term of copyright protection. The Berne Convention, on the other hand, called for copyright protection that existed throughout the life of an author. The rules set forth in the Berne Convention helped shape U.S. copyright law to extend protection for the life of the author plus 70 years.
- The United States joined the Buenos Aires Convention in 1911. This convention yielded a treaty that established mutual recognition of copyrights whenever a work contains the words "All Rights Reserved." Copyright protection under the Buenos Aires Convention is for a shorter period of time than that permitted by U.S. law.
- Certain provisions that apply to intellectual property law, including copyrights, have been incorporated into the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and North American Free Trade Agreement.
