1. The Chairman said that, since the Council's meeting in June 2010, the Council had received a number of supplements and updates to earlier notifications of laws and regulations notified under Article 63.2 of the Agreement:
• Albania had notified its Law on Industrial Property, and regulations on trademarks, utility models, geographical indications and industrial designs, as well a decision on tariffs for the services of the Directorate General of Patents and Trademarks;
• Peru had notified various laws and decrees relating, inter alia, to copyright, plant varieties, border measures, implementation of the Trade Promotion Agreement between Peru and the United States and the operation of the National Institute for the Defence of Competition and Protection of Intellectual Property (INDECOPI), as well as decisions by the Andean Community clarifying and amending its common industrial property regime;
• Sri Lanka had notified its Intellectual Property Act;
• Hong Kong, China had notified amendments to its Copyright Ordinance;
• Colombia had notified a decree on border enforcement as well as a decision by the Andean Community amending its common industrial property regime;
• Cape Verde had notified a decree relating to the establishment of an Intellectual Property Institute of Cape Verde;
• Oman had notified two decrees promulgating the Law of Copyrights and Neighboring Rights and the Law on Industrial Property Rights, respectively;
• Bulgaria had notified laws on copyright and related rights; on patents and utility models; on trademarks and geographical indications; and on industrial designs;
• Madagascar had notified an ordinance on the protection of industrial property and related regulations; and a law on literary and artistic property;
• Czech Republic had notified various laws concerning industrial property; pharmaceuticals; topographies of semiconductor products; geographical indications; consumer protection; industrial designs; biotechnological inventions; intention and rationalization proposals; and utility models;
• Lithuania had notified a law on trademarks;
• Slovak Republic had notified laws relating to designs; trademarks; utility models; copyright and related rights; provisions of the criminal code concerning IPR infringements; topographies of semiconductor products; geographical indications; and patents and supplementary protection certificates;
• Korea had notified its copyright, trademark, design protection, patent, and layout-design acts, and acts on agricultural products quality control and prevention of unfair competition;
• United States had notified its consolidated patent rules; and its trademark law; and
• Croatia had notified laws on geographical indications; on the protection of topographies of semiconductor products; industrial designs; trademarks and patents; as well as related regulations; the amended Patent Act inter alia implements the WTO Decision on the "Implementation of Paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health", providing the legal basis for Croatia to act as an exporting Member.
These notifications were being circulated in the IP/N/1/- series of documents.
2. The Chairman urged those Members whose initial notifications remained incomplete to submit the outstanding material without delay. He also reminded other Members of their obligation to notify any subsequent amendments of their laws and regulations without delay after their entry into force. He reminded in particular those Members who had made any changes to their laws and/or regulations to implement the Decision on TRIPS and Public Health and who had not yet notified such changes to the Council to do so.
3. With respect to notifications of contact points under Article 69 for the exchange of information and cooperation on trade in infringing goods, he said that, since the Council's meeting in June, Belize and Gabon had notified their contact points. In addition, updates to contact points notified earlier had been received from Belize, Oman, El Salvador, Kuwait, the Kyrgyz Republic, and the European Union. These notifications were being circulated in addenda to document IP/N/3/Rev.11.
