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

Ambassador Al-Otaibi (Kingdom of Saudi-Arabia) and Ambassador Alfredo Suescum (Panama)
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)
12 TECHNICAL COOPERATION AND CAPACITY-BUILDING
306. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) for the Arab States of the Gulf is an intergovernmental organization with membership of six developing countries. 307. In pursuance to Article (20) of the GCC Economic Agreement which states that "member States shall develop programmes encouraging talented individuals and supporting innovation and invention; cooperate in the field of intellectual property and develop regulations and procedures ensuring protection of intellectual property rights; and coordinate their relevant policies towards other countries, regional blocs and international and regional organizations", the GCC Secretariat General directs most of its technical cooperation activities to its member States. 308. The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf started working to amend the "GCC Patent Law" to comply with national patents laws of its member States as well as with the international agreements. It established the "GCC IP Training Center" in Kuwait which Continuingly organizing training programmes in different IP fields for the benefits of the member States. 309. The GCC has also been working on the adoption of a framework of coordination activities between the GCC Patent Office and the member States patent offices. The framework includes patent policy, patent filing, patent examination, awareness and invention promotion, organizing joint activities, training and human resources, patent information, information technology, and international treaties and organizations. 310. Since October 2014 the GCC Secretariat General is providing several activities on technical cooperation on TRIPS, where they were providing consultation and financial support for the "Gulf Inventors Campaign" which is organized by the "Federation of GCC Chambers of Commerce". The campaign aims to support GCC inventors as well as to enhance innovation in the member States. The GCC Patent Office examiners participated in evaluating the inventions by being judges in the invention's evaluation committee. 311. The GCC Patent Office is sponsoring the participation of inventors from its member States in several national and international exhibitions of inventions. The GCCPO participated in the Sixth Technical Meeting organized by Sultan Qaboos University, at Muscat, in the Sultanate of Oman, in November 2014, as well as in IENA "International Trade Fair Ideas - Inventions - New Products" , at Nuremberg, in Germany, in November 2014. 312. The GCCPO also participated in the fourteenth session of WIPO Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP) held on November 2014, and in its fifteenth session held in April 2015. 313. The GCCPO also participated in the "7th International Exhibition of Inventions in the Middle East", in Kuwait, held in December 2014 as well as in the sixth student's conference by evaluating the students invention, at Jeddah, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, held in February 2015. The GCCPO also Participated in the Forum of "Management of challenges in the field of research and innovation", organized by the Gulf Petrochemicals Union in Dubai in March 2015. It also participated in the Conference on Challenges in the implementation of IP laws in the Arab Countries" held in Cairo, Egypt, on April 2015. 314. In addition, the GCCPO participated in " the Forum on Asian patent information", "East Meet West" organized by EPO, in Vienna, Austria, in April 2015. It also participated in Regional workshop on "Benefits from patents examination reports results in other patent offices", organized by WIPO and Egypt Patent Office, in Cairo, Egypt in June 2015. The GCCPO participated in the twenty-Second session of the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Patents held in Geneva, in July 2015. It also participated in workshop on IT for Arab Countries Offices for Industrial Property, which was organized by WIPO and Egypt Patent Office, in Cairo, Egypt, in August 2015. The GCCPO provided technical support for Kuwait Patent Office by sending expert personnel from GCCPO to Kuwait Patent Office, in September 2015. 315. In addition to this, the GCC Secretariat General (GCC IP Training Center) organized in Kuwait a number of training courses such as on the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS), organized in cooperation with Arab Society of Intellectual Property, in Kuwait, in November 2014 .It organized also, in cooperation with Singapore IP Academy, courses on Copyright Law in the Current Legislations, in May 2015, as well as on Protection of Undisclosed Information and Trade Secrets, in May 2015. The GCC IP Training Center offered also a training course on PCT, in June 2016 and on Intellectual Property Basics in June 2016 as well as on Legislation Procedure in Intellectual Property for GCC states, in June 2015. 316. The said activities are the beginning of an ambitious programme aimed at forming the base under which the GCC countries intend to protect inventors' rights and their inventions. Therefore, it requires continuous efforts and follow-up from all concerned parties for the implementation and enforcement of national laws and regulations as well as of international agreements for the benefit of development and progress as well as of public interest.
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