158. The Chairman recalled that the Council had held its annual review of technical cooperation at its meeting in September. At that meeting, the Chair had said that Members would be provided with a further opportunity to make comments on the information submitted for the September meeting that they might not yet have been able to study. In addition to the material submitted for the September meeting, the Council had received certain additional material. The European Communities had supplemented its earlier report on the technical cooperation activities by it and its member States by submitting contributions prepared by the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market and the European Patent Office (IP/C/W/426/Add.5/Suppl.1). Furthermore, the Council had received information on TRIPS related technical cooperation activities from Australia (subsequently circulated as document IP/C/W/426/Add.6), as well as from the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (IP/C/W/424/Add.3).
