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

Ambassador Carlos Pérez del Castillo (Uruguay)
E.i Updated information on technical cooperation activities
42. The representative of Australia informed the Council about a two-week training programme, held in Australia in 1998, for senior researchers and officials from the APEC region on biotechnology and intellectual property. This programme had been designed to improve the participants' skills base in this area. It had been held in response to a need identified by a number of APEC members as a priority to improve the technical expertise in biotechnology and to help their countries make practical use of the intellectual property system, facilitating technology transfer and cooperative research projects, to engage effectively in licensing and other negotiations, and to be able to protect and commercialize the fruits of biotechnological research. The seminar had involved 26 participants from the APEC region, comprising government officials and senior researchers involved in patent administration and policy-making and biotechnological-related research. This mix of participants had enabled valuable cross-fertilization and networking between Australian commercial research and government contacts and those in the region. The programme had also benefited from substantial support from industry, the legal profession, the research community and a range of government and non-government agencies in the field of biotechnology. It had been designed to show how the intellectual property system functioned at each stage from the breakthrough research to commercialization. One of Australia's leading technology-licensing consultants had also taken participants through the negotiating skills required for research collaboration, technology transfer and access to biological resources. Hands-on training in biotechnology had also been provided by IP Australia and had been welcomed as one of the practical benefits of disclosure of state-of-the-art technology in patents. The basic aim of the programme had been to meet some skills requirements, to give participants practical hands-on skills to deal with biotechnology research and also in their capacity as administrators to ensure that the intellectual property system was effectively used to achieve their national development objectives. The programme had neither presumed nor prescribed any particular policy on biotechnology and intellectual property but focused on generally applicable practical skills such as the drafting and analysis of documents, use of information resources, licence negotiation skills and development of cooperative research agreements. A key element of feedback from participants had been the need for a greater exchange of information about the practical application of intellectual property systems in countries throughout the region. She noted that this information was being provided in the Council and her delegation hoped that it addressed a real need. Her delegation hoped that an increased focus on the development of these skills and the flow of technical information would assist all economies with the policy and practical challenges in this area. Australia shared a need with other Members to build up skills and was planning to contribute on an ongoing basis to cooperative efforts.
IP/C/M/22