1.1. The Chairman said that, since its meeting in October 2015, the Council had received a number of updates to earlier notifications of laws and regulations notified under Article 63.2 of the Agreement:
• Chinese Taipei had notified the Patent Attorney Act in its amended version of July 2015; the Regulations for the Deposit of Biological Material for Patent Application; and the Operational Directions Governing the Mutual Cooperation between the Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) and Japan Patent Office in the Field of Deposit of Biological Materials for the Purposes of Patent Procedure;
• Hong Kong, China had notified its Patents Ordinance Order 2015; the Registered Designs Ordinance Regulation 2015; the Trademarks Ordinance Regulation 2015; and the Layout-Designs (Topography) of Integrated Circuits Regulation 2015; and
• Japan had notified its Unfair Competition Prevention Act, as amended in 2015.
1.2. These notifications of laws and regulations were 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. No new or updated responses to the Checklist of Issues on Enforcement had been submitted since the Council's meeting in October 2015. He encouraged delegations that were yet to do so to submit their initial responses to the Checklist. He also invited other delegations that had submitted responses to consider updating the information provided, as appropriate.
1.4. 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 October 2015, Kazakhstan had notified a contact point under Article 69 for the first time. The information on the Members' transparency toolkit page had been updated accordingly.
1.5. The Chair particularly encouraged delegations that had notified a new or revised legislative measure, or a new or updated response to the enforcement checklist to briefly inform the Council about the key points of the notified amendment or information provided. Most new notifications were revisions or amendments of existing notifications. Several delegations had followed this practice at recent sessions of the Council. This had provided valuable insight into the notifications provided and had assisted in promoting awareness and transparency.
1.6. The representatives of Chinese Taipei; Japan; Hong Kong, China briefly introduced their respective measures notified. The representative of South Africa also took the floor.
1.7. 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.
1.8. He especially encouraged Members to notify changes made to their laws and/or regulations to implement the Decision on TRIPS and public health. At least 51 WTO Members, including many of the world's major exporters of medicines, had adopted implementing legislation that allows them to use the Paragraph 6 System as exporters and/or importers. Only 18 Members had formally notified such measures to the TRIPS Council. Completing the notification of all relevant laws and regulations could assist Members in preparing for the potential use of the System. It would also help the Secretariat in its efforts to provide informed technical support to Members in this area.
1.9. The representative of the Secretariat provided a brief update on the state of play of the e-TRIPS project to improve the user-friendliness and cost-effectiveness of the notification system.
1.10. The Council took note of the statements made.
