At its meeting of 11-12 June 2013, the Council for TRIPS agreed to invite intergovernmental organization observers to the Council to update the information on their technical and financial cooperation programmes relating to the implementation of the TRIPS Agreement.
The present document reproduces the information which has been received from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) by means of a communication dated 2 October 2013.
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NOTE ON TECHNICAL AND LEGAL ASSISTANCE OF THE WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ORGANIZATION (WIPO) RELEVANT TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE AGREEMENT
ON TRADE-RELATED ASPECTS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
(THE TRIPS AGREEMENT)
PREPARED BY THE INTERNATIONAL BUREAU OF THE WIPO
18 SEPTEMBER 2013
1.1. The present note has been prepared by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), pursuant to the invitation of the Chair of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Council for TRIPS of 7 August 2013, to provide updated information on its technical, legal and financial cooperation programmes relevant to the implementation of the TRIPS Agreement for the meeting of the Council for TRIPS scheduled for 10 and 11 October 2013.
1.2. TRIPS-related legal assistance and technical cooperation activities and programmes managed by WIPO fall within the framework of the provisions of the Agreement between WIPO and WTO which entered into force on 1 January 1996. Since then, WIPO has responded to requests received from developing countries and least developed countries (LDCs) by providing extensive legal and technical assistance. It is recalled that the WIPO-WTO Agreement was later complemented by two joint initiatives launched by the Directors-General of the two Organizations in July 1998 and in June 2001, respectively. These initiatives further reinforced the commitment of the two Organizations to provide necessary advice and assistance to developing countries and LDCs relating to the implementation of the TRIPS Agreement.
1.3. In the period October 2012 to August 2013, WIPO has continued to provide legal-technical assistance to developing countries and LDCs in support of their efforts in implementing obligations deriving from the TRIPS Agreement and within the context of WIPO's Results Framework as approved by WIPO member states. WIPO, therefore, continued to assist countries in developing and implementing strategies and policies aimed at creating, protecting, managing and exploiting IP for economic, social and cultural development. WIPO also strengthened its assistance to help countries in integrating IP into overall national development and public policy in areas such as health, trade, education, research, technology transfer and competition policies, including advising countries on the flexibilities available under international IP treaties, and in particular the TRIPS Agreement.
1.4. WIPO Lex, the Organization's on-line database of intellectual property legislation and treaties, developed also for the benefit of TRIPS implementation, is another tool of legal assistance on intellectual property matters. It provides free and universal access to global IP legal information, while offering the most comprehensive coverage of the main IP and IP-related laws and regulations of 195 countries (members of WIPO, WTO and/or UN). The database is available in English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish. Besides national laws and regulations, WIPO Lex features some 170 multilateral and 500 bilateral IP-related treaties. The database is an efficient tool for comparative analysis helping to develop legal and economic strategies.
1.5. The Annex to this document provides a list of the relevant activities undertaken by WIPO in the period October 2012 to August 2013. This information is also publicly available on the WIPO IP Technical Assistance Database (IP-TAD) at the following link: (http://www.wipo.int/tad/en/) and in the WIPO Country Profiles (http://www.wipo.int/directory/en/).
