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

Mr. S. Harbinson (Hong Kong)
B.2.ii Notifications of legislation already received under Article 63.2
25. The Chairman recalled that it had been agreed that national laws and regulations should be notified as of the time that the corresponding substantive obligation started applying under the provisions of the Agreement. However, at the previous meeting of the Council, it had also been agreed that, where a country amended its legislation to bring its laws and regulations into conformity with the TRIPS Agreement in advance of its obligation to do so, such legislation should be submitted to the Council for TRIPS in advance of the date of application of the corresponding provisions of the Agreement on a best-endeavours basis. In pursuance of this, the Council had received in document IP/N/1/EEC/1 a notification from the European Communities of amendments to pre-existing Community legislation aimed at giving effect to TRIPS obligations. He noted that, while the Community had only notified the amendments at this stage, it had indicated that it would notify the complete texts of the legislation in question in due course, in accordance with the procedures to be adopted by the Council for TRIPS for giving effect to Article 63.2 of the TRIPS Agreement. The Secretariat had also received notifications from Australia of its copyright legislation, which were being processed and would be made available to Members shortly.
IP/C/M/2