45. The Chairperson recalled that there were five Members whose legislation had only partly been the subject of the Council's review exercise in 1996 and 1997 and that there were also three Members who had acceded to the WTO during that period and who, while not applying a TRIPS transition period, had not yet been subject to this review. As agreed at the last Council meeting, completion of the review of the legislation of Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and the Slovak Republic would be on the agenda of the Council meeting scheduled for 12 and 13 May 1998. At that time, the Council would also continue, in respect of copyright and related rights, with its review of the legislation of Poland. It had also been agreed that the legislation of Ecuador, Mongolia and Panama would be taken up at the Council's meeting scheduled for the autumn.
46. She also recalled that it had been agreed that, for the review in May 1998, the same basic procedures would be used as employed so far. In accordance with these procedures, and as the Council had agreed at its last meeting, the deadline for the submission of advance notice of questions was 1 March 1998. Responses to these questions were due by 15 April 1998. A reminder of these deadlines had been circulated in WTO/AIR/754 of 13 January 1998. The areas of intellectual property covered by this review would be, for all five countries, copyright and related rights and, in addition, for Bulgaria and Romania, also trademarks, geographical indications and industrial designs.
47. As regards the texts of the legislation to be reviewed, notifications of laws and regulations in the area of copyright and related rights had been received from Hungary, Poland and Romania. Laws and regulations in the area of industrial designs had been received from Romania. These laws and regulations had been distributed in the IP/N/1/- series of documents. The Secretariat had not yet received a notification of the copyright legislation of Bulgaria. Legislation in the areas of trademarks and geographical indications had not yet been received from Bulgaria and Romania.
