Minutes - TRIPS Council - View details of the intervention/statement

Ambassador Vanu Gopala Menon (Singapore)
European Union
N.ii The proposal of the African Group
219. The representative of the European Communities said that, as regards paragraph (a) of the proposal, his delegation was under the impression that only a few Members were benefiting currently from the transition period provided under Article 65.4. If this was so, he wondered why this proposal had been made. He asked the Secretariat to provide the Council with some information on the current use of the transition period under Article 65.4. 220. As to paragraph (b) of the proposal, he said that this was quite an interesting approach and that his delegation would be ready to explore it further. In his view, exclusive marketing rights were not the same as patent rights. Since the TRIPS Agreement was not as detailed and prescriptive on exclusive marketing right as it was on patents, one could certainly conclude that Members could have a greater flexibility in the implementation of the former.
IP/C/M/40