H.E. Ambassador Dagfinn Sørli (Norway)

World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)

10 TECHNICAL COOPERATION AND CAPACITY-BUILDING

101.   We would like to announce the dates of the trilateral distance learning course. The WHO, WIPO and WTO have prepared an executive course on promoting access to medical technologies and innovation, which is administered by the WIPO Academy. The purpose of this course is to give an overview of the factors that shape access to, and influence, the innovation of medical technologies. The course describes how these two objectives are shaped by a diverse range of factors that can be found in the policy fields of public health, IP and international trade. The target audience primarily includes technical professionals, such as patent examiners, health policymakers, drug procurement specialists, IP specialists and senior students. The dates for the next non-tutored session in Arabic, English, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish from 15 September to 31 October 2021 and the next tutored session in English is scheduled from 12 November to 20 December 2021. Registration for these two sessions will be announced on the WIPO Academy webpage in the end of August and in early October, respectively.

The Council agreed to proceed in the usual manner and to revert to the matter at its next meeting.

43. The Chair said that the Council had regularly conducted annual reviews of technical cooperation and capacity building activities at its end of the year meeting. These reviews were based on reports submitted by developed country Members, international organizations and the WTO Secretariat. He invited the Secretariat to recall the usual arrangements for such reviews.
44. A representative of the Secretariat said the usual procedure was to invite developed-country Members to submit information on their activities pursuant to Article 67 of the TRIPS Agreement to be reviewed at the last Council meeting of the year. Other Members who also engaged in technical cooperation were also encouraged to share information. Intergovernmental organizations with observer status in the TRIPS Council, as well as the WTO Secretariat, were also invited to report on their relevant activities. The requested written information would usually be made available four weeks prior to the next meeting, in order to allow timely circulation before the meeting. In view of the dates of the next TRIPS Council meeting (13-14 October 2021), this would mean that written information should be submitted by 15 September 2021.
45. The Chair said that documentation on this topic was usually quite extensive. To ensure a streamlined and systematic approach to the management of documentation, members were requested to use the eTRIPS Submissions System, which allowed the convenient preparation of such submissions, both in capital and at Geneva missions. The Secretariat would be pleased to provide informal support and background to interested delegations.
46. The representatives of Bangladesh; and the World Intellectual Property Organization took the floor.
47. The Council agreed to proceed in the usual manner and to revert to the matter at its next meeting.

IP/C/M/100, IP/C/M/100/Add.1