IP/C/68  
 
11 November 2014  
(14-6580)  Page: 1/4  
  
 
  ANNUAL REPORT (2014) OF THE COUNCIL FOR TRIPS 
 
 
1  GENERAL  
1.1.  Since the period covered by its 2013 report1, the Council for TRIPS has held three formal 
meetings, on 25-26 February, 11 June and 28-29 October. The minutes of these meetings are to 
be found in documents IP/C/M/75 and IP/C/M/7 5/Add.1, IP/C/M/76 and IP/C/M/76/Add.1, and 
IP/C/M/77 and IP/C/M/77/Add.1.2 
1.2.  Since the Chairman was absent from the February meeting, the Council elected his 
predecessor Ambassador Dacio Castillo (Honduras) as interim Chair for that meeting. The 
subsequent meetings were chaired by Ambassador Mothusi Palai (Botswana). 
1.3.  The meetings of the Council were open to all WTO Members, other governments with 
observer status in WTO bodies and certain international intergovernmental organizations granted 
observer status in the Council. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International 
Monetary Fund (IMF), the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United Nations (UN), 
the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the World Bank, 
the World Customs Organization (WCO) and the Worl d Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) 
enjoy regular observer status in the TRIPS Council. The World Health Organization (WHO) has ad hoc observer status in the Council. At its meeting in March 2002, the Council agreed to a 
request from the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) for observer status 
during the Council's discussions on the TRIPS Ag reement and public health at that and future 
meetings. At its meetings in June 2010 and November 2012, the Council agreed to grant ad hoc 
observer status on a meeting-by-meeting basis to the African Regional Intellectual Property 
Organization (ARIPO), the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI), the Cooperation Council of the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). 
Pursuant to this, ARIPO, OAPI, the GCC and EFTA were invited to attend each formal meeting on 
an ad hoc basis. Decisions on requests for observer status from 12 other organizations are pending.
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2  NOTIFICATIONS UNDER THE PROVISIONS OF THE AGREEMENT 
2.1.  The Council took note of new notifications under various provisions of the TRIPS Agreement. 
The delegations of Switzerland, Colombia, South Africa, Montenegro, the Kingdom of Bahrain, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Korea and Panama provided further background to the 
notifications they had filed. To date, 132 Members have notified, pursuant to Article 63.2, all or 
part of their implementing legislation relating to all provisions of the Agreement. 104 Members 
have provided responses to the Checklist of Issu es on Enforcement. During the reporting period, 
several Members have updated their earlier notifications of laws and regulations. 137 Members 
have notified pursuant to Article 69 contact points for the purposes of cooperating with each other with a view to eliminating international trade in goods infringing intellectual property rights. A number of Members have updated the information they had earlier provided. The Council was 
briefed on ongoing efforts to streamline arrangements for submitting and managing notifications, 
                                               
1 Document IP/C/67. 
2 Documents IP/C/M/77 and IP/C/M/77/Add.1 to be circulated. 
3 The organizations in question are li sted in document IP/C/W/52/Rev.13. IP/C/68 
 
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  and for developing an on-line information service so as to improve the accessibility of this 
material. 
3  REVIEWS OF NATIONAL LAWS AND REGULATIONS 3.1.  At its meeting in February, the Council completed its review of the implementing legislation 
of Montenegro. At its meeting in October, the Co uncil initiated the review of the implementing 
legislation of Tajikistan. The Council also follow ed up the review of the Russian Federation and 
took note of the outstanding material required  to complete the pending reviews of two other 
Members. 
4  REVIEW OF THE PROVISIONS OF ARTI CLE 27.3(B); RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE 
TRIPS AGREEMENT AND THE CONVENTION ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY; AND PROTECTION OF TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE AND FOLKLORE 
4.1.  Following the practice in its past meetings that delegates address these three agenda items 
together, the Council continued to discuss them together on the basis of contributions by Members. As requested by the Council, the Chair continued consulting on the earlier suggestion 
that the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) be invited to brief the Council 
on the outcome of the tenth meeting of the Confer ence of the Parties to the CBD held in Nagoya, 
Japan in October 2010, and on the suggestion that  the WTO Secretariat be requested to update 
three factual notes that summarized the points delegations had made in the Council's past 
discussions on these three agenda items. In resp onse to a request from delegations, the WTO 
Secretariat held a briefing, back-to-back with  the Council's meeting in February, on the 
relationship between the TRIPS Agreement and the CBD to provide factual background information 
in order to enable delegations to engage in substantive discussions and to facilitate the Council's 
consideration of this matter. 
5  NON-VIOLATION AND SITUATION COMPLAINTS 
5.1.  At the Council's meeting in February, the Chai r drew the Council's attention to the decision of 
the Ninth Ministerial Conference to extend the moratorium on such complaints until its Tenth Session to be held in 2015 (WT/L/906). At its meetings in February, June and October, the Council 
continued its examination of the scope and modalities for such complaints. At its meetings in June 
and October, the Council had before it a communication from the United States on "Non-Violation Complaints under the TRIPS Agreement (IP/C/W/599).  In response to a request from delegations, 
the Secretariat held a briefing, back-to-back with the Council's meeting in February, on non-
violation and situation complaints to provide factual background information in order to enable 
delegations to engage in substantive discussions and to facilitate the Council's consideration of this matter. 
6  REVIEW OF IMPLEMENTATION OF THE TRIPS AGREEMENT UNDER ARTICLE 71 
6.1.  No statements were made or documents submitted by delegations under this agenda item. 7  REVIEW OF THE APPLICATION OF THE PROVISIONS OF THE SECTION ON 
GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS UNDER ARTICLE 24.2 
7.1.  No statements were made or documents submitted by delegations under this agenda item. 
The Chair invited those delegations that had not yet provided responses to the Checklist of Questions (IP/C/13 and Add.1) to do so, and said  that those Members that had already provided 
responses could provide updates to the extent there had been any significant changes to the way 
they provided protection to geographical indica tions. In line with the Council's recommendation 
made in March 2010, he also encouraged Members to share information on bilateral agreements 
related to the protection of geographical indications into which they had entered. IP/C/68 
 
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  8  REVIEW UNDER PARAGRAPH 8 OF THE DECISION ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF 
PARAGRAPH 6 OF THE DOHA DECLARATION ON THE TRIPS AGREEMENT AND PUBLIC HEALTH 
8.1.  At the Council's meeting in February, the Chair recalled the decision taken by the General 
Council to extend the period of acceptances of the Protocol Amending the TRIPS Agreement until 
31 December 2015 (WT/L/899). He updated delegati ons on the status of acceptances of the 
Protocol and encouraged Members that had not yet notified their acceptance to ensure that 
necessary measures were being taken at domestic level in order to proceed in a timely fashion. 
8.2.  At its meeting in October, the Council took up the annual review, pursuant to paragraph 8 of 
the Decision, of the functioning of the system set out in the Decision. The Council's report to the General Council on the operation of the system set out in the Decision will be circulated in the 
IP/C/- series of documents. 
9  IMPLEMENTATION OF ARTICLE 66.2 9.1.  At its meeting in February, the Council foll owed up its eleventh annual review of developed 
country Members' reports on their implementation of Article 66.2.  
9.2.  At its meeting in October, the Council took up its twelfth annual review of developed country 
Members' reports on their implementation of Articl e 66.2. For this review, the Council received the 
second set of updates to the fourth set of new detailed reports on actions they had taken or 
planned in pursuance of their commitments under Article 66.2 from the following developed country Members: Australia; Japan; New Zealand; Canada; Norway; Switzerland, the European Union and individual member States, namely Austri a, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, 
Ireland, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom; as well as 
the United States. This documentation is being circulated in document IP/C/W/602 and addenda. 
10  TECHNICAL COOPERATION AND CAPACITY-BUILDING 
10.1.  At its meeting in February, the Council followed up its annual review of technical 
cooperation held at its meeting in October 2013. The Council had before it a communication from 
Togo identifying its priority needs for technical and financial cooperation (IP/C/W/597). 
10.2.  At its meeting in June, the Council invited developed country Members to supply information 
on their activities pursuant to Article 67 of the TRIPS Agreement prior to the annual review of technical cooperation at its meeting in October. Intergovernmental organizations that have observer status in the TRIPS Council were invited to provide information on their activities of 
relevance and, further, the WTO Secretariat was requested to report on its activities. In 
preparation for the annual review it held at its meeting in October, the Council received updated information from the following developed country  Members: Australia; Japan; New Zealand; 
Canada; Switzerland; Norway; and the European Union and individual member States, namely 
Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Es tonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, the 
Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom; as well as the United 
States (being circulated in IP/C/W/601 and adde nda). Updated information was also received from 
the WCO, WHO, FAO; UPOV; WIPO; UNCTAD; and the GCC (being circulated in IP/C/W/603 and addenda), as well as from the WTO Secretariat (IP/C/W/600). 
11  CONTRIBUTION OF INTELLECTUAL PROP ERTY TO FACILITATE THE TRANSFER OF 
ENVIRONMENTALLY RATIONAL TECHNOLOGY 
11.1.  At the requests of Ecuador, at its meetings in February and June the Council had on its 
agenda an item on "Contribution of Intellectual Property to Facilitate the Transfer of 
Environmentally Rational Technology". Ecuador referred to its earlier submission entitled 
"Contribution of Intellectual Property for Facilit ating the Transfer of Environmentally Rational 
Technology" (IP/C/W/585 in English and French, IP/C/W/585/Rev.1 in Spanish). At the Council's 
meeting in October, Ecuador informed the Council, under the agenda item "Other Business", that it 
was undertaking a process of domestic consultations of which the Council would be informed in due course. IP/C/68 
 
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  12  INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND INNO VATION: UNIVERSITY TECHNOLOGY 
PARTNERSHIPS 
12.1.  At the request of the United States, at its February meeting the Council had on its agenda 
an item on "Intellectual Property and Innovation: University Technology Partnerships". 
13  CONCERNS WITH RESPECT TO MEASUR ES RELATED TO PLAIN PACKAGING OF 
TOBACCO PRODUCTS AND THEIR COMPAT IBILITY WITH THE TRIPS AGREEMENT 
13.1.  At the request of Cuba, at its February meeting the Council had on its agenda an item on 
"Concerns with Respect to Measures Related to Plain Packaging of Tobacco Products and Their 
Compatibility with the TRIPS Agreement". At the request of Ukraine and the Dominican Republic4, 
the Council had the same item again on its agenda at its meeting in October. 
14  INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND INNO VATION: INNOVATION INCUBATORS 
14.1.  At the request of Chinese Taipei and the Un ited States, and co-sponsored by Panama, at its 
June meeting the Council had on its agenda an item on "Intellectual Property and Innovation: Innovation Incubators". 
15  INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND INNOVA TION: PROMOTING AWARENESS; CASE 
STUDIES 
15.1.  At the request of the European Union, Sw itzerland and the United States, at its October 
meeting the Council had on its agenda an item on "Intellectual Property and Innovation: Promoting 
Awareness; Case Studies". 
16  OBSERVER STATUS FOR INTERNATIONAL INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS 16.1.  The Council continued its consideration of the pending requests for observer status from 
international intergovernmental organizations, and requested the Chair to continue his 
consultations on the requests from the five IGOs that had recently provided updated information, 
as well as on the requests from the remaining seven organizations that had not yet updated their 
information. 
17  OTHER BUSINESS 17.1.  At the Council's meeting in October, Bangladesh, on behalf of the LDC Group, raised, under 
"Other Business", the issue of "Extension of the Tr ansition Period under Article 66.1 of the TRIPS 
Agreement for Least Developed Country Member s for Certain Obligations with respect to 
Pharmaceutical Products". 
 
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4 The Dominican Republic cosponsored the item afte r the circulation of the proposed agenda for the 
meeting.