6. The Chairperson informed the Council that three notifications had been received from Panama under provisions of the Berne Convention which were incorporated into the TRIPS Agreement by virtue of its Article 9.1. One of these notifications related to the possibility provided in Article 14bis(2)(c) of the Berne Convention and had been circulated in document IP/N/5/PAN/1. The other two notifications concerned the provisions of Article I and Article IV(2) of the Appendix to the Berne Convention. These notifications could be found in document IP/N/5/PAN/2.
7. The Chairperson said that the Panamanian notifications under the Appendix of the Berne Convention as incorporated in the TRIPS Agreement were the first notifications that the Council had received under these provisions. Referring to the procedures applicable to these notifications as agreed by the Council at its meeting of 22 February 19961, he said that it had been understood that the Council was to look into one technical detail only once a Member invoked these provisions of the Appendix, namely how under the TRIPS Agreement the renewable ten year periods for which such notifications remained valid should be calculated. He proposed that the Council ask the Secretariat to prepare a background note on the issue raised by the Panamanian notifications in question and to revert to the matter at the next meeting.
