Ambassador Dacio Castillo (Honduras)

South Africa

1 NOTIFICATIONS UNDER PROVISIONS OF THE AGREEMENT

8. We would like to provide an update of the Bill that South Africa assented to on 9 December 2013. Our President has signed the Intellectual Property Laws Amendment Act 2013, the purpose of which is to provide for the recognition and protection of certain manifestations of indigenous knowledge as a species of IP. To this end, it amends certain laws so as to provide for the protection of relevant manifestations of indigenous knowledge as a species of IP, namely: • the Performance Protection Act, 1967, to provide for the recognition and protection of performances of traditional works; • the Copyright Act of 1978, to provide for the recognition and protection of indigenous works, to provide for the establishment of a National Council in respect of indigenous people, to provide for national databases for the recording of indigenous knowledge, and to provide for the recording of indigenous works, and to provide for the establishment of a National Trust fund for indigenous knowledge; • the Trade Marks Act of 1993, to provide for the recognition of indigenous terms and expressions and for the registration of such terms and expressions as trademarks, to create for this purpose a further part of the Trade Marks Register, to provide for the recording of indigenous terms and expressions, and to provide for further protection of geographical indications; and • the Designs Act of 1993, to provide for the recognition and registration of indigenous designs, to create for this purpose a further part of the Designs Register. 9. It also introduces statutory provisions to provide for the establishment of a National Council in respect of indigenous knowledge, a national database for the recording of indigenous knowledge and a national trust and trust fund for the purpose of indigenous knowledge.

The Council took note of the statements made.

1.1. The Chairman said that, since the Council's meeting in October 2013, Tajikistan, a new Member of the WTO, had made its initial notification of its laws and regulations. The notification referred to its laws on trademarks and service marks, geographical indications, inventions, industrial designs, and the protection of topographies of integrated circuits. The notification was being circulated in document IP/N/1/TJK/1, and the texts of those laws were being made available in the sub-series of documents in electronic form on the Documents Online database.

1.2. In addition, the Council had received a number of updates to earlier notifications of laws and regulations under Article 63.2. of the TRIPS Agreement:

• Australia had notified Copyright Amendment (International Protection) Regulation 2013;



• Colombia had notified that its Constitutional Court had declared unenforceable on procedural grounds a law that it had earlier notified to the Council, namely Law No. 1520 of 2012 implementing commitments assumed under the Trade Promotion Agreement between Colombia and the United States and its Amending Protocol, in the context of trade policy and economic integration;



• Chinese Taipei had notified its amended Patent Act and amended Enforcement Rules of the Patent Act. The Patent Act implemented the Paragraph 6 System by providing for the possibility to grant special compulsory licences for the production and export of medicines to treat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other epidemics to countries with insufficient or no manufacturing capacities in the pharmaceutical sector. In addition, it had notified a number of other regulations relating to patent term extension, patent fees, electronic applications and awards for the creation of inventions, utility models and designs;



• The Gambia had notified its Copyright Act 2004;



• Croatia had notified its Copyright and Related Rights Act and amendments to that act; and



• Korea had notified its amended Copyright Act.



1.3. These notifications of laws and regulations were available in the IP/N/1- series of documents, and the actual texts of laws in sub-series of documents in electronic form on the Documents Online database.

1.4. In addition, Switzerland had provided updated responses to the Checklist of Issues on Enforcement circulated in document IP/N/6/2.

1.5. As regards notifications of contact points under Article 69 for the exchange of information and cooperation on trade in infringing goods, since the Council's meeting in October 2013, an update to a contact point notified earlier had been received from Thailand. The information on the Members' transparency toolkit page had been updated accordingly.

1.6. The representatives of Switzerland, Columbia, and South Africa took the floor under this agenda item.

1.7. The Chairman urged those Members whose initial notifications of laws and regulations remained incomplete to submit the outstanding material without delay. Equally, he urged other Members to fulfil their obligation under the TRIPS Agreement to notify any subsequent amendments of their laws and regulations without delay after their entry into force. He especially encouraged Members to notify changes made to their laws and/or regulations to implement the Decision on TRIPS and public health.

1.8. The representative of the Secretariat updated the Council on its work to improve the user friendliness and cost-effectiveness of the notification systems.

1.9. The Council took note of the statements made.

IP/C/M/75, IP/C/M/75/Add.1