IP/C/W/408/Add.5

European Union

The following communication, dated 11 November 2003, is being circulated at the request of the Delegation of the European Commission. It was circulated as an advance copy for the Council's meeting on 18 November 2003. _______________ This document complements the information on the implementation of Article 67 of the TRIPS Agreement, as provided in document IP/C/W/377/Add.7 of 15 November 2002. It concerns the technical cooperation activities carried out during the past year – until summer 2003 - by the European Communities and individual member States in favour of developing and least-developed country Members, with the objective to facilitate the implementation of the TRIPS Agreement. It is intended to update this notification upon availability of additional information from other member States. The EC draw the attention of the Members of the TRIPS Council to the fact that the above mentioned technical cooperation providers undertook considerable activities in the Acceding and Candidate Countries to the EU (Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey). Additional information on the activities of the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM) and the European Patent Office (EPO) will be distributed as supplements to this document.