WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  IP/C/W/426/Add.2 
8 September 2004 
 
 (04-3750) 
Council for Trade-Related Aspects 
of Intellectual Property Rights Original:   English 
 
 
 
TECHNICAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES: 
INFORMATION FROM MEMBERS 
 
SWITZERLAND 
 
Addendum  
  
 The following communication, dated 31 August 2004,  is being circulated at the request of the 
Delegation of Switzerland. 
  
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 Following documents IP/C/W/12/Add.3 of 13 September 1995, IP/C/W/34/Add.2 of 
17 September 1996, IP/C/W/77/Add.3 of 30 Se ptember 1997, IP/C/W/109/Add.1 of 4 September 
1998, IP/C/W/154/Add.2 of 8 October 1999,  IP/C/W/203/Add.1 of 13 September 2000, 
IP/C/W/306/Add.3 of 18 September 2001, IP /C/W/377/Add.9 of 24 January 2003 and 
IP/C/W/408/Add.4 of 14 November 2003 in which much of the description of the aims and 
organizational aspects of technical cooperation remain s relevant, this report describes the activities of 
the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (h ereafter "the Institute") in the field of technical 
cooperation between 1 September  2003 and  31 August  2004
1.  Drafted along the same lines as the 
preceding reports, this document draws a distin ction between multilateral activities and bilateral 
activities.  It should be recalled that the concer n of the Swiss authorities is to ensure optimum 
coordination of available resources, both at the multilateral and bilateral level, while avoiding 
duplication or overlapping of programmes. 
 
I. MULTILATERAL ACTIVITIES 
1. Technical cooperation in the framework of the World Intellectual Property 
Organization (WIPO) 
(a) Annual basic training programme at WIPO 
From 2 June to 2 July 2004, two experts, one from India and one from Viet Nam, took part in 
a training course which was held at WIPO in Gene va and at the Institute in Berne.  At WIPO, 
the experts attended the Interregional Seminar on Industrial Property from 2 to 4 June 2004.  
The programme at the Institute from 7 June to  2 July 2004 covered the entire field of 
intellectual property, focusing in particular on patents, trademarks, industrial designs and 
copyright.  Emphasis was put on the practical, ad ministrative and organizational work.  As in 
the past, the Swiss Federal Agency for De velopment and Cooperation of the Federal 
                                                      
1 Unless otherwise indicated. IP/C/W/426/Add.2 
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 Department (Ministry) of Foreign Affairs fina nced the entire programme.  Costs related to 
teaching and other guidance for the two expert s in Berne were covered by the Institute. 
(b) Information and/or training visits 
 At the request of WIPO, the Institute rece ived delegations from the following countries: 
 
• Morocco:  on 3 October 2003, a visit of sen ior officials of the Moroccan Office for 
Industrial and Commercial Property took place.  The Institute presented its training system in the field of patents, trademarks , designs and copyright, treating both the 
protection titles and the information contained.  An emphasis was put on how to best foster and support small and middle-sized ente rprises with regard to their intellectual 
property. 
• African, Asian, Latin and South American and Eastern European Countries:  on 
9 December 2003, a visit took place in th e framework of the "WIPO Workshop on 
Services for the Promotion of Innovation and their Management", including representatives from Algeria, Benin, Boliv ia, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, 
Cameroon, Chad, El Salvador, Madagascar, Mali, Peru, Romania, Togo, Tunisia and Viet Nam.  The workshop included sever al presentations on the promotion of 
innovation and its management and was held  at WIPO (Geneva), the Swiss Federal 
Institute of Technology (Lausanne), the Swi ss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property 
(Berne) and the Swiss Federal In stitute of Technology (Zurich). 
(c) Free-of-charge searches on the state of the art for WIPO in favour of developing countries  
Between 1 September 2003 and 31  August 2004, the Institute conducted, upon request of 
WIPO, free-of-charge searches on the state of the art for the following countries (the searches were 
financed through the Institute's ordinary budget): 
  
 Country Number of searches  
 
 Argentina   2 
 Costa Rica   1 
 Egypt   1  Jamaica   4  Mexico 10  Morocco   1 
 Trinidad and Tobago 14 
  
 Total 33 searches 
 
(d) Other WIPO Seminars 
• African Countries:  from 8 to 12 September 2003, a seminar took place in Yaoundé, 
Cameroon, in the field of "Acquisition, Management and Dissemination of Technical 
Information", organized by OAPI and WIPO, including representatives from Benin, 
Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, 
Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania,  Niger, Rwanda, Sene gal and Togo.  An 
expert from the Institute participated as a speaker on the following topics:  sources of 
technical information in patent matters,  patent documentation, establishment of  IP/C/W/426/Add.2 
 Page 3 
 
 
 research of technical information, research in the field of trademarks, and industrial 
designs and presentation of supporting tools for research. 
 
• India:  from 18 to 20 November 2003,  a WIPO regional symposium took place in 
New Delhi for Asia and the Pacific on the protection of geographical indications for 
representatives of intellectual property offi ces from 20 countries.  A speaker from the 
Swiss Federal Office of Agriculture held  two presentations on the protection of 
geographical indications: "The Experience of  Switzerland" and "The Specification, Use 
and Control of Geographical Indications: the Example of Gruyère Cheese." 
 
2. Participation in technical cooperation programmes of the World Trade Organization 
(WTO) 
• The WTO Secretariat organized from 27 to 29 April 2004 a regional workshop for Asia 
and Pacific economies on certain topical issues in regard to intellectual property in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, as the first of a number of such regional workshops.  An expert from the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property participated as speaker 
in the workshop held in Kuala Lumpur in order to present the Swiss perspective on the 
topical issues addressed. 
 
• Jointly with WIPO, the WTO organized from 28 June to 2 July 2004 at the WIPO 
Academy in Geneva a colloquium for teachers of intellectual property law originating from developing countries.  An expert from the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual 
Property contributed to the colloquium by presenting presentations on several 
intellectual property issues in the WTO/TRIPS context. 
 
II. BILATERAL ACTIVITIES 
 Socialist Republic of Viet Nam:  the "Special Programme of Cooperation" based on the 
Agreement on the Protection of Intellectual Propert y and Co-operation in the Field of Intellectual 
Property between Switzerland and the Socialist Repub lic of Viet Nam continued for the third year 
with the implementation of several important tasks and programmes: 
 
• The new Vietnamese intellectual property draft legislation or legislation already in 
force was translated.  The translated legisl ation has been published in the form of a 
binder for regular up-dates. 
• Enforcement training with the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property and the 
Swiss Federal Customs Authority was organized at the Berne and Zurich Airport.  13 
Vietnamese officials of various national en forcement agencies participated in the 
training.  This was followed by an intellectual property training course at the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property fo r another group of 20 Vietnamese officials 
(courses arranged separately for officials concerned with either industrial property or copyright matters). 
• The modernization of IP administration of  the National Office of Industrial Property 
(NOIP) and the Copyright Office of Viet Na m (COV) was also integrated as an element 
of the ongoing programme. 
• Additional English lang uage courses for intellectual prope rty officials were organized 
and intellectual property teaching material  for universities and other educational 
institutions prepared. 
• The promotion of the use and exploitation of traditional knowledge continued, the 
focus being on compiling data (in particular of  plants for medicinal use) to be inserted 
into a new Vietnamese database for the protection of traditional knowledge. IP/C/W/426/Add.2 
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 • Finally, a compilation of guidelines for draf ting applications for industrial property 
rights is currently being elaborated. 
 
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