136. The representative of the United States thanked the Government of Sweden for its work to resolve this dispute. In addition to the comments made by the representative of the European Communities, it was his delegation's understanding that the new Swedish legislation provided that, if there were reasons to believe that a person had taken, or was about to take, action to infringe intellectual property rights, the courts could order a search for infringing materials, documents or other relevant evidence and that this search could be ordered without prior notice to the other party if there was a risk that materials or documents could be removed, destroyed or altered, and that this legislation would come into effect on 1 January 1999. He stressed the importance of this development for all Members.
