WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONIP/C/W/201
30 August 2000
(00-3410)
Council for Trade-Related Aspects
of Intellectual Property Rights
WTO SECRETARIAT TECHNICAL COOPERATION IN THE TRIPS AREA
Note by the Secretariat
1. This document updates the information on the WTO Secretariat's technical cooperation
activities in regard to TRIPS matters contained in document IP/C/W/156, dated 15 October 1999.  It
covers a ten-month period from November 1999 to August 2000.  It focuses on the Secretariat's
technical cooperation activities that specifically relate to intellectual property.  However, it should be
noted that the general technical cooperation and training activities of the WTO Secretariat usually
cover intellectual property.  These activities as they relate to intellectual property matters are brieflydiscussed in the last section of this note.
Main Orientations
2. The focus of the Secretariat's technical cooperation activities specifically in relation to TRIPS
has continued to be on assisting Members to understand the rights and obligations which flow fromthe TRIPS Agreement.  It has been aimed at helping Members to assess the amendments that may be
needed to their national legislation, the adaptations in institutions that may be called for and other
requirements for which they would need to plan, and to train staff, both for these purposes and for the
actual implementation of TRIPS-consistent legislation in the fields of standards and enforcement.
The purpose has also been to assist Members to participate fully in the operation of the TRIPS
Council, including to meet their procedural obligations under the Agreement, and the other
mechanisms of the WTO related to TRIPS matters.  The Secretariat is frequently requested to supplyinformation about issues under review or negotiation in the Council for TRIPS or issues under
discussion in other fora perceived to have a relation to the TRIPS Agreement.
3. During the reporting period, an important part of the Secretariat's work has been assisting
developing countries to prepare notifications of their TRIPS implementing legislation and to
participate in the review of that legislation.  The first review meeting took place during the reporting
period, and the following meetings will take place in the fall of the year 2000 and in the year 2001.
The Secretariat has also provided assistance to c ountries seeking to join the WTO by helping them to
prepare for the accession process and by training officials.  In providing general assistance related to
the rights and obligations which flow from the TRI PS Agreement, priority continues to be attached to
assistance to least-developed countries.
4. The technical cooperation made available has been essentially demand-driven.  Importance
has been attached to ensuring complementarity and cooperation with other intergovernmental
organizations, in particular WIPO.  The main modes of supply of technical cooperation specifically
relating to the TRIPS Agreement have been information and advice given to Members in Geneva,
study programmes, training courses, seminars and workshops for developing countries in Geneva andelsewhere, and, to a lesser extent, NGO conferences.  However, the extent to which requests for
assistance could be responded to continued, in the course of the reporting period, to be constrained by
personnel and financial resources.  In addition, the heavy reliance on extra-budgetary funds has made
it difficult to plan future events in an efficient manner.IP/C/W/201
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Information and Advice Given to Members in Geneva
5. A large part of the work of Secretariat officials dealing with intellectual property matters has
been concerned with providing information in response to questions put to them by representatives of
Member governments.  During the reporting period, focus has been on notification and reviewprocedures.  Other issues raised have concerned, for the most part, the meaning of particular
provisions of the TRIPS Agreement and matters under discussion in the TRIPS Council.  Matters
have been raised with the Secretariat not only by local delegations but also by visiting intellectual
property officials and as a result of direct contacts from officials in capitals by phone or in written
form.  Often the issues raised relate to draft legislation under consideration.  Advice and information
has also been given to officials from acceding countries and representatives of the private sector.
Seminars and Workshops for Developing and Acceding Countries
6. During the reporting period, the Secretariat prov ided speakers to 18 international, regional
and national seminars, workshops and other events outside Geneva devoted in whole or in large part
to the TRIPS Agreement or to a specific aspect of the Agreement and aimed to be of benefit to
officials of developing and acceding countries directly concerned with implementation of theAgreement.  Participation of the Secretariat officials in certain events, including those organized by
WIPO, was financed by the organizers.  The Annex to this document contains a list of technical
cooperation missions outside Geneva in the TRIPS area.
7. In addition, the Secretariat organized special study programmes for individual countries or
groups of countries in Geneva, and provided speakers or briefings for a number of seminars andtraining programmes organized in Geneva by others, notably WIPO.
Cooperation with WIPO and Other Intergovernmental Organizations
8. As indicated in this note and earlier reports submitted to the Council for TRIPS, cooperation
with WIPO has been a key feature of WTO Secretar iat technical cooperation in the TRIPS area.  This
has been based on the Cooperation Agreement between the two Organizations, Article 4 of which
deals with legal-technical assistance and technical cooperation.1  Since the Agreement was concluded,
there has been intensive cooperation between the two Organizations on technical cooperation matters,
which has been regularly reported to the Council.2
9. In pursuance of the Cooperation Agreement, WIPO and the WTO launched, in July 1998, a
Joint Initiative on Technical Cooperation to assist developing countries to meet their commitments
under the TRIPS Agreement by the year 2000.  In view of the imminence of this deadline, theinitiative was intended to draw the attention of the respective governments to the availability of
assistance from the two Organizations in the implementation of the TRIPS Agreement and to enable
them to make use of the available resources and expertise for their countries' benefit.  It also
                                                     
1 The Agreement Between the World Intellectual Property Organization and the World Trade
Organization came into effect on 1 January 1996.  Article 4 of the Agreement provides for the InternationalBureau of WIPO to make available to developing country WTO Members which are not Members of WIPO thesame legal-technical assistance relating to the TRIPS Agreement as it makes available to Member States of
WIPO which are developing countries.  The WTO Secretar iat is required to reciprocate.  The Agreement also
provides for the International Bureau and the WTO Secretariat to enhance cooperation in their legal-technicalassistance and technical cooperation activities relating to the TRIPS Agreement for developing countries, so asto maximize the usefulness of those activities and ensure their mutually supportive nature.
2  See documents IP/C/W/156, 110, 79 and 36.IP/C/W/201
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underlined the willingness of the two Organizations to use their resources to provide, on request,
assistance for these purposes, both individually and jointly.3
10. During the reporting period, the two Organizations have continued their cooperation in
providing assistance.  The WTO Secretariat has provided speakers for three regional or international
events organized by WIPO, and the International Bureau of WIPO has provided speakers for two
regional workshops organized under the Joint Integrated Technical Assistance Programme to Selected
Least-Developed and Other African Countries (JIT AP).  In addition, the two Secretariats have
contributed to each other's training activities in Geneva.  For example, the WTO has provided
speakers to the WIPO Worldwide Academy and briefings to the participants of special WIPO study
programmes, and WIPO has provided half-day long briefings to the participants of WTO trade policy
courses.  In addition, WIPO provided a speaker for a trade policy course organized by the WTO and
the Islamic Development Bank in Africa.
11. The WTO Secretariat has also cooperated in the provision of technical cooperation in the area
of TRIPS with a number of other intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental
organizations.
Other Technical Cooperation and Training Activities
12. As noted above, the general technical cooperation and training activities of the WTO
Secretariat usually cover intellectual property.  Secretariat officials working on intellectual property
matters have participated in these activities to the extent possible.  Such activities have included
seminars, workshops and training courses aimed at providing an overall appreciation of the WTO
provisions and mechanisms held in Geneva and outside Geneva and other assistance.  For example,
the regular and special WTO Trade Policy Courses include presentations on the TRIPS Agreement,and the participants in the regular courses spend half a day at WIPO, learning about that Organization,
its conventions and activities.  In addition, the training material and other documentation prepared by
the Secretariat contain information on the TRIPS Agreement.
                                                     
3 For details on the implementation of the Joint Initiative, see documents IP/C/W/156 and 110.  See
also document IP/C/W/155/Add.4, which contains information on WIPO's technical cooperation activitiesrelevant to the implementation of the TRIPS Agreement, including those relating to the implementation of theJoint Initiative.IP/C/W/201
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ANNEX
Technical Cooperation Missions in the TRIPS Area from November 1999 to August 2000
Date Place Mission
30 October-
1 November 1999India International Brainstorming Workshop on WTO
Agreements and People's Concerns organized by the
Centre for Study of Global Trade System and
Development and the National Working Group on Patent
Laws of New Delhi
29 November-
3 December 1999Argentina International VII Latin-American Congress on Viticulture
and Wine-Making
9-10 December 1999 Botswana Regional United States – Southern African Development
Community (SADC) conference on TRIPS 2000
compliance
10 February 2000 India National seminar at the Administrative Staff College of
India (ASCI)
11 February 2000 India Regional Joint Asian Patent Attorneys Association
(APAA) / International Federation of Intellectual Property
Attorneys (FICPI) Forum on TRIPS
12 February 2000 Thailand Regional ITC Buyers/Sellers Meeting on Pharmaceuticals
7 March 2000 Lebanon International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) national
conference on the TRIPS Agreement
29-31 March 2000 Spain First Ibero-Ameri can Forum on Innovation, Industrial and
Intellectual Property organized by the AsociaciónInteramericana de Propriedad Industrial (ASIPI), the
Colegio Oficial de Agentes de la Propriedad Industrial of
Portugal (ACPI), and the Colegio Oficial de Agentes de la
PI of Spain (COAPI)
10-14 April 2000 Spain Seminar on IPRs organized by the Spanish Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, the Government of Poland and the Office
for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) for
Polish officials
19-21 April 2000 Ghana University of Ghana Faculty of Law national workshop on
WTO dispute settlement procedures and practices and
intellectual property
2-4 May 2000 Indonesia WHO/ASEAN Workshop on the TRIPS Agreement and
its Impact on Pharmaceuticals
9-11 May 2000 Botswana WIPO Subregional Round Table on the Implementation of
the TRIPS AgreementIP/C/W/201
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Date Place Mission
16-18 May 2000 Nepal WIPO Asian Regional Seminar on Modernization of the
Intellectual Property System for Least-Developed
Countries
22-23 May 2000 Stockholm Seminar on Trade Relations and Intellectual Property
Rights organized by the Swedish Ministry for Foreign
Affairs for officials from the Baltic Sea region countries
6-9 June 2000 Kenya Joint Integrated Technical Assistance Programme to
Selected Least-Developed and other African Countries(JITAP) / Specialized Subregional Workshop on
Intellectual Property for Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania
13-16 June 2000 Côte d'Ivoire JITAP Specialized Subregional Workshop on Intellectual
Property for Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire andGhana
21 June 2000 Paris WIPO International Academy for Judges25-26 July 2000 China European Patent Office (EPO) Symposium on Protecting
Intellectual Property in China:  Challenges and
Opportunities in the 21
st Century
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