123. The representative of India said this was a new issue for many Members, including India. His delegation would get back with more substantive comments later on the Secretariat paper, which had been received recently. However, on a preliminary examination, he said there were two issues on which further discussions might be held in the Council and which would help the General Council to make progress on the matter. These were, first, new technologies and their access, including adequate availability at affordable terms, as reflected in paragraphs 21 through 27 of the Secretariat document. Second, as some other delegations had mentioned, there was the issue of the relationship between trademarks and domain names. In this regard, the Secretariat had very well encapsulated some of the concerns in paragraph 60 of the paper. This was also being discussed in other fora, including WIPO, and paragraphs 86 and 87 mentioned some work that had already been done there. He found it interesting to note that there were some differences between trademarks and domain name registrations. Finally, he said that the objective before WIPO and before the WTO, for the future, would be how to minimize conflicts between intellectual property rights on the one hand and commercial interests arising out of domain name registrations on the other.
