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

Ambassador Al-Otaibi (Kingdom of Saudi-Arabia) and Ambassador Alfredo Suescum (Panama)
European Union
12 TECHNICAL COOPERATION AND CAPACITY-BUILDING
280. I would like to introduce again the some of our activities: EU – India Intellectual Property Cooperation 281. This is a project that will extend from February 2015 to September 2017, involving a EU contribution €1,800,000 and a contribution by our trademark office (OHIM) of €120,000, amounting to a total of €1,920,000. 282. The Project Components are twofold: (i) trademark and design administration services & information to the business community aimed at strengthening the capacity of the IP administration in India to deliver quality registration and information services to the business community, particularly in the areas of trademarks and industrial designs; and (ii) to enhance the capacity of the Indian productive sector to create, protect and manage its own brands by using IP as a tool for development. 283. A second project is one that has been ongoing for many years, but it has had another full year, i.e. the EU-ASEAN Project on the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights - ECAP III, that supports the ASEAN IPR Action Plan 2011-2015. Some examples of results include the ASEAN TMclass search tool enabling web access to the ASEAN TMclass database and including search, browse and translation functionalities, became fully operational for use by the ASEAN IP Offices in March 2015. The ASEAN IP Offices have agreed to make it also open for public use on the web in August 2015. 284. This ECAP III programme also included the exchanges of officials, for instance 50 officials from the IP Offices of Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR and Myanmar improved their knowledge on the legal and technical aspects of the Madrid Protocol so they were trained in this area. 285. The project also facilitated access through the IP Portal to the common online trademark information platform of the ASEAN Member States. There were also a number of exercises in the area of designs and geographical indications that you can consult in the information we have provided. 286. Passing now to some projects by member States I would like to make reference to a project by Austria's IP Office. They organized a training course on patent documentation and information, protection of trademarks and designs, international IP treaties in which Bangladesh with other countries participated. 287. France has organized on an annual basis since 2007 courses on GIs, for in total 138 participants from 43 countries and regional organisations. France also organized several other general training courses on intellectual property for LDCs. 288. Sweden organized a course for LDCs of three weeks in Stockholm and one week in Myanmar to enhance the participants understanding of intellectual property rights with emphasis on their contribution for economic growth, trade, and development. It had an audience of around 25 participants from countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, Malawi, Lao PDR, Sudan, Rwanda, Uganda, Bhutan, Zambia, Mozambique, Tanzania, Cambodia, Burundi, Sierra Leone and Ethiopia. 289. Finally the UK also held several training courses on IP, with participants from Nigeria, Jamaica, Kenya, Georgia, South Africa, St Lucia, Tanzania, Trinidad & Tobago, Egypt and also on Trademarks and Design specific for Malaysia, Thailand, Viet Nam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Burma and the Philippines.
The Council took note of the statements made and agreed to revert to the matter at its next meeting.
12.1. The Chairman recalled that, at its meeting in June 2015, the Council had agreed to hold its annual review of technical cooperation at this meeting. He suggested that Members also discuss any other issues relating to this agenda item.

12.2. In preparation for the annual review, developed country Members had been once more requested to update information on their technical and financial cooperation activities relevant to the implementation of the TRIPS Agreement in time for this meeting. Other Members who also made available technical cooperation had been encouraged to share information on these activities if they so wished. The Secretariat had issued on 19 June 2015 an airgram (WTO/AIR/IP/4) reminding Members of this request. In addition, intergovernmental organizations observers to the Council as well as the WTO Secretariat had been invited to provide information.

12.3. To date, the Council had received information from the following developed country Members: Japan, New Zealand, Canada, Switzerland, Australia, the United States, and Norway (IP/C/W/610 and addenda). The report submitted by the European Union and individual member States, namely Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom, had been made available as a room document on documents online and would also be circulated as an addendum to document IP/C/W/610.

12.4. The Council had received updated information from the following intergovernmental organizations: FAO, GCC, OECD, WCO, UNCTAD, WHO, UPOV, and WIPO (IP/C/W/609 and addenda). Updated information on the WTO Secretariat's own technical cooperation activities in the TRIPS area was circulated in document IP/C/W/608.

12.5. He said that these reports provided very valuable information both as regards details of specific activities, but also the broader policy considerations that were guiding capacity building activities of individual Members and Observers. Nevertheless, much of this resource remained largely untapped which might also be due to the amount of information provided and the way in which this was done. In order to promote awareness and transparency, the Secretariat had repeatedly suggested that the information about specific activities be reported in table format. It had also provided regular updates with respect to its work aimed at identifying ways of facilitating the submission, processing and circulation of information on technical assistance.

12.6. The representatives of the European Union, Australia, New Zealand, and Ecuador took the floor.

12.7. The representative of the WTO Secretariat took the floor.

12.8. The representatives of the GCC, UNCTAD, WHO and WIPO took the floor.

12.9. The Chairman noted that some of the information had been received only very recently, and most of it was available only in its original language, and therefore proposed to provide Members an opportunity at the next meeting to make further comments on the information submitted for this meeting.

12.10. The Council took note of the statements made and agreed to revert to the matter at its next meeting.

IP/C/M/80, IP/C/M/80/Add.1