1.1. The Chairman said that, since the Council's meeting in November 2012, Montenegro, a new Member of the WTO, had made its initial notification of its laws and regulations. The list of notified laws and regulations was being circulated in document IP/N/1/MNE/1, and the texts of those laws and regulations were being made available in the sub-series of documents in electronic form on the Documents Online database. Its responses to the Checklist of Issues of Enforcement were being circulated in document IP/N/6/MNE/1.
1.2. In addition, the Council had received a number of updates to earlier notifications of laws and regulations notified under Article 63.2. of the Agreement:
• Cuba had notified a Resolution on an official list of plant species, including hybrids;
• Cape Verde had notified a Decree-Law revising its law on copyright;
• Jordan had notified 2007 amendments to its patent law;
• Mexico had notified a Decree promulgating the Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks;
• Canada had notified a consolidated text of its Copyright Act, as amended by Bill C-11;
• the United States had notified its consolidated Copyright Regulations, Consolidated Patent Laws, Patent Law Treaties Implementation Act of 2012; an Act to implement the provisions of the Hague Agreement and the Patent Law Treaty; changes to implement micro-entity status for paying patent fees; and an amendment to the Trademark Act; and
• Georgia had notified a Law on Appellations of Origin and Geographical Indications of Goods.
Those notifications of laws and regulations were being made available in the IP/N/1- series of documents, and the actual texts of laws in sub-series of documents in electronic form on the Documents Online database.
1.3. As regards notifications of contact points under Article 69 for the exchange of information and cooperation on trade in infringing goods, since the Council's meeting in November, Montenegro had notified its contact point. In addition, updates to contact points notified earlier had been received from Indonesia; Hong Kong, China; Macao, China; and Lesotho. The information on the Members' transparency toolkit page had been updated accordingly.
1.4. The Chairman urged those Members whose initial notifications of laws and regulations remained incomplete to submit the outstanding material without delay. Equally, he urged other Members to fulfil their obligation under the TRIPS Agreement to notify any subsequent amendments of their laws and regulations without delay after their entry into force. He especially encouraged Members to notify changes made to their laws and/or regulations to implement the Decision on TRIPS and public health.
