WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONIP/C/15
4 December 1998
(98-4875)
Council for Trade-Related Aspects
of Intellectual Property Rights
ANNUAL REPORT (1998) OF THE COUNCIL FOR TRIPS
I. GENERAL
1. Since the period covered by its last report1, the Council for TRIPS has held five formal
meetings, on 24 February, 12 May, 16 July, 17 September and 1-2 December 1998.  The minutes of
these meetings are to be found in documents IP/C/M/17-21.2
2. The first of the meetings referred to above was chaired by Ambassador Carmen Luz Guarda
(Chile).  The remainder were chaired by Ambassador István Major (Hungary).
3. The meetings of the Council were open to all WTO Members, other governments with
observer status in WTO bodies and international intergovernmental organizations with regular
observer status in the Council.  Decisions on requ ests for observer status from eleven organizations
are pending.3
II. NOTIFICATIONS AND NOTIFICATION PROCEDURES
(i) Article 63.24
4. The notification procedures, adopted by the Council at its meeting in November 1995, require
that, as of the time that a Member is obliged to start applying a provision of the TRIPS Agreement,
the corresponding laws and regulations shall be noti fied without delay (IP/C/2).  To date, 34 Members
have made such notifications under Article 63.2 with respect to all or most of their implementinglegislation relating to all provisions of the Agreement.  Eight other Members have made notifications
relating specifically to the implementation of Articles 3, 4 and 5 of the Agreement.
5  Notifications
concerning the implementation of Article 70.8 and, in some cases, Article 70.9 of the TRIPS
Agreement have been received from 23 Members;  some of them indicate that product patent
protection for pharmaceutical and/or agricultural chemical products is already available in theirterritories.
5. The notification procedures also specify that a Member who has amended a law or regulation
to bring it into conformity with provisions of th e TRIPS Agreement in advance of its obligation under
the TRIPS Agreement to start applying these provisions will use its best endeavours to notify such
law or regulation as soon as possible after its entry into force.  Three Members have made such
notifications.  Other notifications indicating that they are made without prejudice to a transition period
under the provisions of Article 65 have been received from five Members.
                                                     
1 Document IP/C/12
2 Document IP/C/M/21 to be circulated.
3 The organizations in question are listed in document IP/C/W/52/Rev.3.
4 Circulation of notifications referred to in paragraphs 4 and 5 below takes place in the
IP/N/1/COUNTRY/- series of documents.  Those referred to in paragraph 6 below have been circulated in theIP/N/6/COUNTRY/- series of documents.
5 A practical aid to assist delegations making the required notification is available in document IP/C/9.IP/C/15
Page 2
6. At its November 1995 meeting, the Council also agreed that Members would provide
responses to a checklist of issues on enforcement (IP/C/5).  To date, 36  Members have notified
responses, two of which have been made without prejudice to entitlements under Article 65.
(ii) Articles 1.3 and 3.16
7. Articles 1.3 and 3.1 of the TRIPS Agreement, relating to the definition of beneficiary persons
under the Agreement and to national treatment, allow certain exceptions to the normal rules on these
matters, provided that notifications are made to the Council for TRIPS.  Under these provisions, 25
Members have submitted such notifications.
(iii) Article 4(d)7
8. Article 4(d) of the TRIPS Agreement requires a Member seeking to justify an exception to the
MFN rule on the basis of an international agreemen t relating to the protection of intellectual property
which had entered into force prior to the entry into force of the WTO Agreement to notify that
agreement to the Council for TRIPS.8  To date, 49 notifications have been received under this
provision from 34 Members.
(iv) Article 699
9. Article 69 of the TRIPS Agreement requires Members to establish and notify contact points
for the purposes of cooperating with each other with  a view to eliminating international trade in goods
infringing intellectual property rights.  Procedures for such notifications were agreed by the Council
in September 1995.  To date, 87  Members have notified contact points.
(v) Notifications under other provisions of the Agreement
10. A number of notification provisions of the Berne and the Rome Conventions are incorporated
by reference into the TRIPS Agreement but without be ing explicitly referred to in it.  To date, two
Members have made notifications under the provisions of Article 14 bis(2)(c) as applicable under the
TRIPS Agreement and one Member has made notifications under provisions of the Appendix to the
Berne Convention so applicable.10
11. Having received the first notifications relating to the provisions of the Appendix to the Berne
Convention, the Council, at its May and July meetin gs, looked into how, under the TRIPS Agreement,
the renewable ten-year periods for which such notifications remained valid should be calculated.  At
the request of the Council, the Secretariat prepared a background note11 on this question and, at its
meeting in July 1998, the Council took note of the fo llowing statement by its Chairperson, in the light
of informal consultations held on the matter12:
"The provisions of Article I(2) of the Appendix as incorporated into the TRIPS Agreement
can be understood so that, for the purposes of the TRIPS Agreement, the relevant periods are
calculated by reference to the same date, i.e. 10 October 1974, as for the purposes of the
Berne Convention.  This would mean that renewable periods of ten years would be the same
                                                     
6 Circulation of these notifications takes place in the IP/N/2/COUNTRY/- series of documents.
7 Circulation of these notifications takes place in the IP/N/4/COUNTRY/- series of documents.
8 An informal guideline to assist individual Members in making or reviewing their notifications under
Article 4(d) is available in the Annex to document IP/C/M/12.
9 The most recent compilation of these contact points is contained in document IP/N/3/Rev.3.
10 Circulation of  these notifications takes place in the IP/N/5/COUNTRY/- series of documents.
11 Document IP/C/W/103
12 See document IP/C/14IP/C/15
Page 3
for the purposes of both Agreements, and that, also under the TRIPS Agreement, the period of
ten years currently running would expire on 10 October 2004."
(vi) Other
12. The Council has also received a number of communications from Members providing
information concerning their status under the transitional provisions of Article 65 of the Agreement.Some of these communications were made in conjunction with notifications made under Article 63.2
(see paragraph 4 above).  Six other communications were made separately from any such
notification.
13
III. REVIEW OF NATIONAL LAWS AND REGULATIONS
13. As agreed at its meetings in September and November 1997, the Council continued in the first
part of 1998 the review of six Members whose legislation had already been subject to the 1996/1997
review exercise but for whom the review had not been completed by the end of 1997.  Including the
questions of the Checklist of Issues on Enforcement (document IP/C/5), the review of the legislation
of the 33 Members taken up in the period between 1996 and the first part of 1998 generated responses
to some 5000 questions recorded in some 3000 pages of documentation.14  A number of responses to
follow-up questions are still pending.
14. Furthermore, the Council reviewed in the au tumn of 1998 the legislation of three Members,
who had negotiated their accession to the WTO and, while not applying a TRIPS transition period,
had not yet been subject to the review.
15. At its meeting in September 1998, the Council was informed that consultations by the
Chairperson of the Council that had been held on possible advance reviews of the legislation of
Members whose legislation had not been subject to the 1996/1997 review exercise, but whoselegislation had already been, in whole or in part, brought into conformity with the TRIPS Agreement
had not generated a consensus among all Members.  In the light of further consultations that the
Chairperson had held in order to explore the possibi lities for spreading out the future workload that
the Council would face in the year 2000, it was agreed that the Chair would consult with those
Members that had been open to advance reviews of their legislation to see if they would be in aposition to have their legislation reviewed in the first part of 2000, so as to initiate the post-2000
review of legislation.  It was also agreed that consultations would be held on the practical
arrangements that would need to be put in place for the reviews of the national implementing
legislation of developing countries after 1 January 2000.  At the meeting in December, the Chair
informed the Council that seven Members with whom he had been consulting had agreed to have theirTRIPS implementing legislation reviewed in the firs t part of 2000.  Consultations with these Members
have been held on the understanding that, in order for a review in the first part of 2000 to work, the
required notifications would need to be made during 1999.  One of the Members in question has
indicated that, if it could not notify before 1 January 2000, because of translation difficulties, it would
do so in the early days of January 2000.
                                                     
13 To the extent that these notifications were made in conjunction with a notification under Article 63.2,
they have been circulated in the IP/N/1/COUNTRY/- series of documents.  When made separately, they areavailable in an IP/C/- document.
14The records of the introductory statements made by delegations, the questions put to them and the
responses given, including follow-up questions and res ponses thereto, are circulated in, respectively, the
IP/Q/COUNTRY/- (copyright and related rights), IP/Q2/COUNTRY/- (trademarks, geographical indications
and industrial designs), IP/Q3/COUNTRY/- (patents, layout-designs of integrated circuits, undisclosedinformation and the control of anti-competitive practices in contractual licences) and IP/Q4/COUNTRY/-(enforcement) series of documents.  The responses to the Checklist of Issues on Enforcement are circulated inthe IP/N/6/- series of documents.IP/C/15
Page 4
16. As regards the consultations that he had held on practical arrangements for the reviews of the
legislation of other developing country Members, the Chair has been consulting in particular about
whether these reviews should be organized on a subj ect-by-subject basis, or by dividing the work
between groups of countries.  At the meeting in December, delegations were urged to inform the
Chair or the Secretariat of their thinking on this matter in the weeks ahead, so that the Chair would be
in a position to put to the Council early next year a suggestion for a schedule of reviews.
IV. IMPLEMENTATION OF ARTICLE 70.8 AND 70.9
17. The Council continued its consideration of the implementation of Article 70.8 and the related
provisions of Article 70.9.15  After the discussion at its meeting in February 1998 of a suggestion for a
systematic review of the implementation of these provisions, the Chairperson noted that, while there
was not a consensus among Members to follow the suggestion, it was open to delegations to put
questions on this matter on the floor of the Council or bilaterally.  Since then, one Member has askeda question on the floor of the Council about the contents of a notification made by another Member
relating to Article 70.8 and 70.9.  Another Member informed the Council that it had communicated
bilaterally questions regarding the obligations under these provisions to several Members, but had not
received responses to these questions.  This Member addressed, at a later stage, questions to Members
which were circulated to all Members at the end of October 1998.
16  A t the Council's meeting in
December 1998, responses to these questions were received from one Member and some other
Members indicated that they were preparing their responses.  The Chair is to hold informal
consultations on how to carry forward the work on the implementation of Article 70.8 and 70.9.
V. IMPLEMENTATION OF ARTICLE 66.2
18. At its meeting in September 1998, the Council agreed that the question of a review of the
implementation of Article 66.2 be placed on the agenda of its meeting in December 1998.  This
Article requires developed country Members to provide incentives to enterprises and institutions in
their territories for the purpose of promoting and encouraging technology transfer to least-developed
country Members in order to enable them to create a sound and viable technological base.  At its
meeting in December, the Council agreed that a question put by the delegation of Haiti requestinginformation on how Article 66.2 is being implemente d be circulated in an informal document of the
TRIPS Council to all Members and that developed country Members be invited to supply information
in response to this question.  The Chair appealed to Members to take the necessary action to ensure
that all notifications and information provided in the Council were as complete as possible, in this
case as well as in all others.
VI. RELEVANT DEVELOPMENTS ELSEWHERE IN THE WTO
19. During the period under review, the Council was informed of five actions under the Dispute
Settlement Understanding relevant to the TRIPS Agreement, as reflected in documents IP/D/11-15
and of the settlement of three disputes through the adoption by the DSB of, in two cases, panel reports
(document IP/D/6/Add.1 a nd IP/D/7/Add.1 and corrigendum) and, in the other case, of a panel report
together with, and as modified by, a report of the Appellate Body (document WT/DS50/9).  At its
meeting in February 1998, the Council took note of a number of statements made in relation to theadopted panel and Appellate Body reports in dispute WT/DS50.  At the Council's meeting in
December, a number of delegations expressed views on the dispute initiated by the European
Communities and their member States concerning patent protection in Canada for pharmaceutical
products.  The Council was also informed of the imminence of the initiation of a dispute by Canada
regarding the protection of inventions in the area of pharmaceutical and agricultural chemical
                                                     
15 As regards notifications relating to Article 70.8 and 70.9, reference is made to paragraph 4 above.
16 Document IP/C/W/113IP/C/15
Page 5
products in the European Communities and their member States.  The Council was further informed
of the imminence of a mutually agreed bilateral solution to one dispute.
VII. TECHNICAL COOPERATION
20. The Council has continued its work in this area on the basis of the procedures agreed at its
meeting in February 1996.  During the period under review, several delegations informed the Councilof specific technical cooperation activities made available to them or by them, or which had taken
place in their territories.  The Council agreed that this year developed country Members would update
the information on their technical and financial cooperation activities pursuant to Article 67 of the
Agreement in time for the Council's meeting in September 1998, which had a special focus on
technical cooperation.  For the sake of transparency, intergovernmental organizations observers to the
TRIPS Council also presented, on the invitation of the Council, information on their activities.  In
addition, the WTO Secretariat provided information on its technical cooperation in the TRIPS area.This information can be found in documents IP /C/W/108-110 and Addenda.  At its meeting in
December 1998, the Council continued its discussion on technical cooperation in order to take into
account the information on technical cooperation activities received just prior to or after the
September meeting.
21. At its meeting in July 1998, the Council was informed that the WTO Secretariat had been
working with its colleagues in WI PO on how to enhance their existing cooperation in the field of
technical cooperation based on the Agreement en tered into between the two Organizations on
1 January 1996, particularly in the light of the imminence of the end of the general transition period
for developing countries on 1 January 2000 and the need to be as efficient as possible in making
available technical cooperation in the intervening period so as to maximize the assistance that theywere in a position to provide.  The WTO Secretariat had agreed with WIPO on a joint initiative to this
effect.  Under this joint initiative, the Directors-General of the two Organizations sent
communications to Ministers of each of the countries concerned, underscoring the commitment of the
two Organizations to do all within their capacity to provide, on request, technical assistance.  Two
annexes had been attached to this joint letter, ai med at facilitating a stocktaking, in the capitals of
those Members that wished to do so, of where they were with TRIPS compliance, how far they
needed to go in order to comply by the year 2000 and, therefore, what assistance would be useful to
them.  One annex concerned a checklist of main requirements of the Agreement and the other a list of
the forms of assistance that could be offered by the two Secretariats.  Both Secretariats reported in
September that replies to the letter had begun to come in from developing country Members.  By the
time of the December meeting, there were some 30 Members that had expressed their interest in the
initiative, including two Members that, at that time, had merely indicated that they were still assessingtheir needs.  These Members had approached WIPO or the WTO or, in many cases, both.  The
Council agreed that the Secretariat should report on a regular basis concerning the progress made in
the implementation of the joint initiative.
22. As agreed in July 1996, contact points in developed country Members' administrations which
can be addressed by developing countries seeking technical cooperation on TRIPS are to be notified.To date, 27 Members have notified their contact points for technical cooperation.
17
23. The Secretariat organized, jointly with the In ternational Bureau of the World Intellectual
Property Organization (WIPO), a third workshop on a sp ecific aspect of technical cooperation with a
view to enabling an exchange of views on techni cal cooperation needs and experiences related to the
implementation of the TRIPS Agreement.  The topic of the workshop, held on 16 September 1998,was "The Process of Implementation of the TRIPS Agreement".
                                                     
17 The most recent compilation of these contact points is contained in document IP/N/7/Rev.2 and
addenda.IP/C/15
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VIII.  REVIEW OF THE APPLICATION OF THE PROVISIONS OF THE SECTION ON 
GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS UNDER ARTICLE 24.2
24. The Council continued its consideration of this matter in 1998.  Further informal
consultations resulted in a draft Checklist of Questions about national regimes for the protection and
enforcement of geographical indications.  At its meetings in May and July 1998, the Council tooknote of the questions that had been suggested by individual Members for inclusion in this Checklist
and invited those Members already under an obligat ion to apply the provisions of the Section on
Geographical Indications to provide their responses by 16 November 1998, it being understood that
other Members could also furnish replies on a voluntary basis.
18  By the time of the Council's
December meeting, replies had been received from the European Communities and a number of their
member States and from 12 other Members.19  After a first discussion on the basis of these responses,
the Council agreed to revert to this matter at its next meeting.
IX. IMPLEMENTATION OF ARTICLE 23.4
25. The Council continued its preliminary work in itiated in 1997 on issues relevant to the
negotiations specified in Article 23.4 of the Agreement concerning the establishment of a multilateral
system of notification and registration of geographical indications for wines, and on issues relevant to
a notification and registration system for spirits, in accordance with paragraph 34 of the Council’sreport (1996).
20  The information-gathering process agreed by the Council in 1997 had generated
12 submissions from Members on systems for the registration of geographical indications which they
operated21 and a background note, prepared by the Secretariat, on existing notification and registration
systems for geographical indications relating to wines and spirits.22  During the period under review,
the discussions focused on the question of what the next step should be for carrying forward workconcerning negotiations for the establishment of a multilateral system for the notification and
registration of geographical indications under Article 23.4.  A proposal for a multilateral register of
geographical indications for wines and spirits based on Article 23.4 of the Agreement, received from
the European Communities in July 1998, was commented upon by many delegations at the Council's
meeting in September.
23  At the Council's meeting in December, the representative of the European
Communities and their member States provided detailed reactions to the points made in September
and a large number of Members made further comments, both in regard to the proposal of the
European Communities and their member States and of a more general nature.  A Member
foreshadowed that it would table its proposal for a notification and registration system relating to
geographical indications for wines and spirits under Article 23.4 shortly;  another Member informed
the Council that it was considering the preparation of a proposal.  The Council will revert to this
matter at its next meeting.  With a view to organi zing its discussion at its next meeting, the Council
agreed that the Chair should come forward with su ggestions for a more structured approach to the
issues under debate.
X. TRADE FACILITATION
26. Following a letter received in September 1998 from the Chairman of the Council for Trade in
Goods, the Council agreed to take up this issue in December 1998.  This letter requested the TRIPSCouncil to address those aspects of trade facilitation which the TRIPS Council regards as being
related to the TRIPS Agreement.  Following inform al consultations on the matter, the Council agreed,
at the December meeting, to request the Secretariat to prepare a short background note on the
                                                     
18 Document IP/C/13 and addendum
19 Document IP/C/W/117 and addenda
20 Document IP/C/8
21 Document IP/C/W/76 and addenda
22 Document IP/C/W/85
23 Document IP/C/W/107IP/C/15
Page 7
relationship between the TRIPS Agreement and trade facilitation.  The Council would revert to the
matter at its next meeting, with a view to concluding its discussions at that meeting, so as to be able to
report to the Council for Trade in Goods in March 1999, as requested.
XI. ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
27. In September 1998, the General Council adopted a work programme on electronic
commerce24, as a follow-up to the Declaration on Global Electronic Commerce adopted by Ministers
at the Ministerial Conference in May 1998.  As part of this work programme, the Council for TRIPS
shall examine and report - by 30 July 1999 - on the intellectual property issues arising in connection
with electronic commerce, including issues concerning the protection and enforcement of copyright
and related rights;  the protection and enforcement of trademarks;  and new technologies and access to
technology.  At its meeting in December 1998, the Council heard a presentation from the observer
from WIPO on the work of that Organization in this area and had an initial exchange of views, mainlyin informal session.  The Council agreed to request the Secretariat to prepare a factual background
note examining the provisions of the TRIPS Agreement relevant to paragraph 4.1 of the Work
Programme on Electronic Commerce.  The note should also provide information on the relevant
activities of WIPO and other intergovernmental organizations.  The Council will revert to the matter
at its next meeting, at which it should prepare its progress report for the General Council.  Before thattime, the Chair will hold further informal consultations.  Members were urged to make national
contributions.
XII. REVIEW OF THE PROVISIONS OF ARTICLE 27.3(B)
28. At its meeting in December 1998, the Council had an initial exchange of views on how the
review  of the provisions of Article 27.3(b) of the Agreement, due  four years after the entry into force
of the WTO Agreement, i.e. in 1999 , should be carried out.  In the light of informal consultations on
the matter, the Chair proposed that the Council initia te the review process in the following way.  First,
those Members that are already under an obligation to apply Article 27.3(b) would be invited to
provide information on how the matters addressed in this provision were presently treated in their
national law.  Other Members would be invited to provide such information on a best endeavoursbasis.  The target date for the provision of this information would be 1 February 1999.  Second, while
it would be left to each Member to provide information as it would see fit, having regard to the
specific provisions of Article 27.3(b), the Secretariat would be requested to provide an illustrative list
of questions relevant in this regard in order to assist Members to prepare their contributions.  Third,
the Secretariat would be requested to contact the FAO, the Secretariat of the Convention on
Biological Diversity and UPOV, to request factual information on their activities of relevance.  It
would be understood that this information-gathering would be without prejudice to the nature of the
review provided for in Article 27.3(b).  Once this information would have been received, the Council
would revert to the question of whether any fu rther information might be requested from the
Secretariat.  This proposal of the Chairman was adopted by the Council, in the case of one delegation
on an ad referendum  basis.
XIII.  ARTICLE 64.3
29. At the Council's meeting in September 1998, the Chairperson drew the attention of the
Council to the provisions of Article 64.3, which require the examination, before the end of 1999, of
the scope and modalities for complaints of the type provided for under Article XXIII:1(b) and (c) of
GATT 1994 made pursuant to the TRIPS Agreement.  It was agreed to have an initial exchange of
views in December 1998 on the work to be done and to request the Secretariat to prepare a factualbackground note on the experience with disputes so far under the TRIPS Agreement, including any
references made to non-violation issues, the negotiati ng history of paragraphs 2 and 3 of Article 64 of
                                                     
24 Document WT/L/274IP/C/15
Page 8
the TRIPS Agreement, the experience with non-violation complaints under the GATT/WTO, and any
information available on the use of the non-violation concept in disputes on intellectual property
elsewhere.  As agreed, the Council had an initial exchange of views at its December 1998 meeting.
The Council will revert to this matter at its next meeting, by which time it expects to have the
Secretariat factual background note as well as a contribution that has been foreshadowed by aMember.
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