73. The representative of Japan congratulated the Chairman on his election. He said that his delegation echoed the statements of the other sponsors of the joint proposal, especially the concern voiced over the perceived widening of the Doha Round mandate on the multilateral system. Japan was committed to the joint proposal as the most appropriate solution under that mandate because of its voluntary participation and the degree of burden placed on participating Members. With a view to achieving convergence in these negotiations his delegation believed that more pragmatic and practical discussions would be beneficial, including an explanation by each side on how the provisions of their respective proposals would be implemented domestically.
74. In this context, he recalled his delegation's own explanation regarding how paragraph 5 of the joint proposal, regarding consultation of the database by the authority of the participating Member, could be implemented in Japan without prejudice to actual decisions taken in the future. Pursuant to the joint proposal, the information on GIs notified and registered in a future multilateral system would be placed in a database. When it came to the examination of trademarks in Japan, this data would be imported into the retrieval system for national trademark examiners, so that trademark examiners retrieved information on notified and registered GIs whenever they examined trademark applications. If potentially conflicting GIs were found as a result of a search, examiners would have to consider whether or not to refuse the trademark application, based on the consultation of the GI register during the retrieval process. It was therefore clearly understood that the act of consultation entailed the act of taking into account. One option for implementing paragraph 5 of the joint proposal would be for the manual of examination guidelines simply to state that trademark examiners had to consult the database. While this statement would suffice by itself, a clause could follow the aforementioned sentence if deemed necessary that trademark examiners take into account the result of the retrieval.
75. He added that in Japan, apart from trademarks, there was another administrative measure in place to regulate the use of GIs for wines and spirits, which fell under the jurisdiction of the national tax administration agency. With regard to the relevant criteria in this context, namely the standards in relation to GIs, the same approach as explained with regard to trademark applications could be taken when implementing the joint proposal. He said that the purpose of this brief explanation had been to demonstrate how the joint proposal could be implemented without complicated legislative proceedings.
76. He concluded by saying that, although the joint proposal had only dealt with the issue in only one paragraph, the issue occupied a prominent place in the domestic measures that future participating Members would have to take to implement the proposal.
