137. The Chairperson proposed, with regard to dates of meetings in 2003, to hold three formal meetings: one in February, one in April, and one in late June or early July. He had been informed by the Secretariat that it was not yet in a position to pencil in any dates due to problems of meeting scheduling, in particular in light of the dates to be first decided for the meetings of the General Council and the TNC. If it appeared necessary, the Council could hold intersessional informal meetings (open-ended) together with bilateral or smaller group consultations. He reiterated his invitation to all delegations to hold consultations with him at any time. Every effort would be made to make the timing of meetings convenient for delegations, especially considering there were many non-Geneva based officials who would like to participate. However, given that the Council was operating under different timing constraints, it might have to break with its past practice of holding the Special Sessions back-to-back with the regular sessions of the TRIPS Council. It had also been suggested by some delegations during his informal consultations with groups of Members that the convening of meetings could usefully be synchronized with the tenth meeting of the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Geographical Indications (28 April – 2 May 2003), so as to take advantage of the presence of experts. The Secretariat would do its utmost to take account of this useful suggestion.
