18. The representative of Chile thanked the Chairman for the work he had carried out since October 2008 and congratulated him on his appointment to WIPO. She said that the Chair's report clearly summed up the work carried out during the past year with regard to the system of registration. In her delegation's view, the document reflected the various positions in these negotiations in a balanced manner and its virtue was that it referred to issues essentially within the mandate of the TRIPS Special Session. It was worth highlighting a couple of points with respect to the legal effects of the register. In her view there was some agreement, as reflected in the report, that consulting the information on the register would include taking this information into consideration when making decisions relating to the registration of trademarks or geographical indications. This, however, had to be interpreted in accordance with the principle of territoriality, which had already been mentioned. Her delegation welcomed the fact that the report highlighted the negotiating mandate as set out in Article 23.4 of the TRIPS Agreement and in the Doha Declaration. Keeping the discussions within the negotiating mandate was essential to maintaining balance on this matter and to making progress. As a consequence, unlike the Swiss and Brazilian delegations, her delegation was in agreement with paragraph 12 of the report and believed that any new criteria with regard to participation in the system should be maintained strictly within the negotiating mandate.
19. With regard to legal effects, she said that it was essential for the success of these negotiations that the principles of the IP system, such as the principle of territoriality, were not violated. The freedom of each national authority to consider information on the register without attributing additional value to it needed to be maintained, as anything more would increase and not facilitate protection. Her delegation therefore agreed with paragraph 15 of the report that obligations for national authorities to consider the information on the register were acceptable if they did not attempt to stipulate what effects such consulting of this information would have in their national systems. While her delegation reserved the right to make more detailed comments later, it agreed with the Chairman's guiding principles and believed that his proposal was in line with the negotiating mandate and with the principles of the intellectual property system. She said that despite the absence of easy solutions, the Chairman had managed to give Members some guidance.
