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

Ms Irene Young (Hong Kong, China)
World Trade Organization
2 2 NOTIFICATIONS UNDER PROVISIONS OF THE AGREEMENT
2. Under Article 63.2 of the Agreement, the Council has received the following notifications: • From Hong Kong, China, Patents and Ordinance Order 2017, the Registered Designs Ordinance Regulation, the Trademarks Ordinance Regulation 2017 and the Layout-Design (Topography) of Integrated Circuits Regulation 2017; • From Switzerland, a number of notifications which include among others consolidated versions of the Federal Law and Ordinance covering the following areas: copyright and neighbouring rights; trademarks and indications of source; patterns, designs and topographies of semi-conductor products; a number of GI–related ordinances as well as the consolidated version of the Federal Law on Agriculture and the Federal Law on the Statute and Tasks of the Federal Institute of Intellectual Property as well as the Fees Charged by the Institute. Some of these laws and regulations notified also include provisions related to IP enforcement; • From the European Union, the 2006 Directive on the term of protection of copyright and certain related rights; certain Commission Regulations in the field of trademarks; the 2013 Regulation establishing a Common Organization of the Markets in Agricultural Products, the 2014 Regulation on the Definition, Description, Presentation, Labelling and the Protection of Geographical Indications of Aromatised Wine Products, as well as a number of Commission Regulations in the field of geographical indications; the E Commerce Directive adopted in 2000; as well as the 2012 Regulation entrusting the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market with tasks related to the enforcement of intellectual property rights; and • From Norway, the Industrial Property Office Act which entered into force on 1 April 2013. 3. These notifications are referred to on the revised agenda for this meeting. They are also available in the IP/N/1-series of documents, and the actual texts of laws are on the Documents Online database. 4. Furthermore, Kazakhstan has notified its responses to the Checklist of Issues on Enforcement shortly before this meeting which have been circulated in the IP/N/6–series of documents. No other initial responses or updates to earlier responses have been submitted since our last meeting. 5. To conclude, as regards contact points, we have received information from Myanmar under Article 69 for the exchange of information and cooperation on trade in infringing goods. Also, Botswana has updated its Article 69 contact points. And again the information on the Members' transparency toolkit page has been updated accordingly.
The Council took note of the notifications and the statements made.
3. The Chairperson invited the Secretariat to provide an update on the legislative measures that had been notified by a number of Members since the Council's meeting in March 2017.

4. The representative of the Secretariat took the floor.

5. The Chairperson invited delegations that had notified a new or revised legislative measure, or given responses or updates to the enforcement checklist, to briefly introduce the changes.

6. The representatives of the European Union; Hong Kong, China; Switzerland; and Norway took the floor.

7. The Chairperson said that, as previous Chairpersons had already noted, notifications to the Council had not been keeping up with the actual development of laws and regulations relating to the TRIPS Agreement. She recalled that Article 63.2 was not a one-off requirement, but required Members to notify any new or amended laws. Therefore, she urged Members to complete any outstanding initial notifications and to keep up to date with notifications on subsequent amendments. The same applied for the Checklist of Issues on Enforcement, which had been established by the Council as an element of Members' notification obligations.

8. The Chairperson invited the Secretariat to provide an update on the development of e-TRIPS, the online platform for filing and consulting notifications and other Council documentation.

9. The representative of the Secretariat briefed Members on the development of e-TRIPS.

10. The Council took note of the notifications and the statements made.

IP/C/M/86, IP/C/M/86/Add.1