e-TRIPS Gateway (Beta)

1. WIPO undertakes an extensive range of technical cooperation activities relating to the TRIPS Agreement. WIPO regularly responds to requests from developing countries, least-developed countries (LDCs), and countries in transition to provide TRIPS-related legislative advice and technical cooperation activities. These activities fall within the framework of the 1995 WIPO-WTO Cooperation Agreement and complement the joint initiative launched by the Directors General of the two Organizations in 2001.

2. WIPO’s legal and technical assistance to Member States are in support of their efforts to implement obligations deriving from the TRIPS Agreement and are within the context of WIPO’s Results Based Framework. WIPO assists mainly developing countries and LDCs in formulating and implementing strategies and policies aimed at creating, protecting, managing, and using IP for economic, social, and cultural development. WIPO also assists countries to integrate IP into their overall national development and public policy in areas such as health, trade, education, research, technology transfer, and competition policies. Furthermore, WIPO advises countries on the flexibilities available under international IP treaties, including the TRIPS Agreement.

3. The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has posed challenges to WIPO’s delivery of its capacity-building activities. In response, WIPO has adapted to new ways of delivering technical assistance to its Member States online. From January to August 2020, WIPO provided nearly 300 technical assistance activities in a virtual format. A number of activities specifically addressed the impact of COVID-19 in relation to a range of IP areas. Moreover, WIPO has taken several initiatives to facilitate technical cooperation in the context of stimulating innovation to fight the pandemic. These initiatives include, inter alia, the COVID-19 IP Policy Tracker, which provides information on measures adopted by IP offices in response to COVID-19; the inclusion of COVID-19 terminology in WIPO PEARL, a multilingual portal that enhances the sharing of scientific and technical terms derived from patent documents; and the addition of a new COVID-19 related search functionality in the global patent database PATENTSCOPE.

4. The Annex provides a list of the relevant activities undertaken by WIPO in the period from September 2019 to August 2020.