14. This brief interim report supplements the series of briefings the Council has received over recent sessions on this elaborate project, which represents a once-in-a-generation overhaul of how we manage TRIPS documentation and how we serve Members in making this information accessible and practicably workable. The project, I am glad to report, is in its late stages, having been assisted and guided by the feedback provided by interested delegations, whom we thank, and who took part in informal briefing and demonstration sessions and gave us very helpful feedback and suggestions.
15. While this is a brief interim report, we expect to have a significant advance to report at the next meeting of the Council. At this stage, the e-TRIPS project has almost completed the full digitisation of the entire range of TRIPS-related notification and review materials. We are currently in the process of validating and closely checking the thousands of individual records concerned and intensively testing the prototype on-line notification tool. We are also preparing a draft web gateway that will greatly facilitate access to and use of all TRIPS-related materials by WTO Members. We have just secured the necessary ad hoc resources to take forward the final stages of implementation both of data validation and upload of the data onto the information management system, on the input side, and for the development and elaboration of an accessible gateway, for the effective use of these data. We are therefore reasonably confident of reaching the final stages of the project in the course of this year, and we will be again reaching out to interested delegations to consult with us both for demonstrations of the current advanced prototypes and for feedback on how to ensure this new facility best meets the practical needs and requirements of Members, both Geneva-based delegates and officials in capital. We certainly welcome the interest and involvement of any interested delegations.