IP/C/75  
18 November  2016 
(16-6343) Page: 1/4 
  
 
  ANNUAL REPORT (2016) OF THE COUNCIL FOR TRIPS  
1  GENERAL  
1.1.  Since the period covered by its 201 5 report1, the Council for TRIPS has held three formal 
meetings, on 1 March , 7-8 June and 8-9 November. T he minutes of these meetings are to be 
found in documents IP/C /M/81 and IP/C/M/ 81/Add.1, IP/C/M/ 82 and IP/C/M/ 82/Add.1, and 
IP/C/M/ 83 and IP/C/M/ 83/Add.1.2 
1.2.  The meeting  in March  was chaired by Ambassador Abdolazeez Al -Otaibi ( the Kingdom of 
Saudi Arabia) , and the meetings in June and November by Ambassador Modest Jona than Mero 
(United Republic of Tanzania) . 
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 Fo od 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 Unit ed Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the World Bank, 
the World  Customs Organization (WCO) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) 
enjoy regular observer status in the TRIPS Council . The World Health Organization (WHO) ha s 
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 Agreement and public healt h 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 Pro perty 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 1 3 other organizations are 
pending.3 
2  NOTIFICATIONS UNDER THE PROVISIONS OF THE AGREEMENT  
2.1.  The Council took note of notifications  of new or revised legislative measures  under various 
provisions of the TRIPS  Agreement . At the Council's meetings, t he delegations of  Canada ; 
Ecuador ; the European Union ; Hong Kong, China ; Japan; Mexico; Moldova ; the Former Yugoslav 
Republic of Macedonia ; and Chinese Taipei  provided further background to the ir notifications . To 
date, 13 4 Member s have notified, pursuant to Article  63.2, all or part of their implementing 
legislation relating to all provisions of the Agreement. 10 7 Members have provided responses to 
the Checklist of Issues on Enforcement . During the reporting period, a number of Members 
updated their earlier notifications of laws and regulations , and several of them provided 
explanations of the significance of this new and amended legislation . 139 Members have notified 
pursuant to Article  69 contact points for the purposes of cooper ating with each other with a view 
to eliminating international trade in goods infringing intellectual property rights . At each meeting, 
the Council was updated  on the Secretariat's ongoing efforts to streamline arrangements for 
submitting and managing noti fications, and for developing an on -line information service so as to 
improve the accessibility of this material.  
                                                
1 Document IP/C/71 and addenda.  
2 Documents IP/C/M/83 and IP/C/M/83/Add.1 to be circulated.  
3 The organizations in question are listed in document IP/C/W/52/Rev.13.  IP/C/75  
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  3  REVIEWS OF NATIONAL LAWS AND REGULATIONS  
3.1.  At its meeting in March , the Council completed its review of the implementing legislation of 
Tajikist an and Fiji . The Council also took note of the outstanding material required to complete the 
pending review of Saint Kitts and Nevis, and of the notifications of its main laws prior to the 
meeting in November . Furthermore, the Council agreed on the arrange ments for the review of the 
national implementing legislation of the Republic of Seychelles and Kazakhstan at its meeting in 
June.  
3.2.  At its meeting in November, the delegations of the European Union and the United States, as 
well as Canada, Japan, New Zealan d and Chinese Taipei provided information on their respective 
domestic legislation to protect trade secrets.  
4  REVIEW OF THE PROVISIONS OF ARTICLE 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  at each meeting  on the basis of 
contributions by Members , including as regards the patentability of life forms and the introduction 
of a mandatory disclosure requirement in the TRIPS Agreement . This discussion also covered  the 
earlier suggestion that the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) be invited t o 
brief the Council on the outcome of the tenth meeting of the Conference 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 discussio ns on these three agenda items.  
5  NON-VIOLATION AND SITUATION COMPLAINTS  
5.1.  At each of its three meetings , the Council continued its examination of the scope and 
modalities for non-violation and situation comp laints , including  by reference to communications 
submitted in the previous year (United States - "Non-Violation Complaints under the TRIPS 
Agreement" (IP/C/W/599) ; Argentina, the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Brazil, China, Colombia, 
Cuba, Ecuador, Egypt , India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Pakistan, Peru, the Russian Federation, 
Sri Lanka and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , African Group and LDC Group  - "Non-Violation 
and Situation Nullification or Impairment  under the TRIPS Agreement " (IP/C/W/ 385/R ev.1 and 
addenda ) and draft Ministerial  decision on "Non-Violation and Situation Complaints " (IP/C/W/607  
and addenda )). 
6  REVIEW OF IMPLEMENTATION OF THE TRIPS AGREEMENT UNDER ARTICLE  71 
6.1.  At the Council's meeting in June  and November , the Chair recalled that the Cou ncil was 
required under Article  71 of the TRIPS Agreement to review the Agreement, having regard to the 
experience gained in the implementation, and that it had not discharged this obligation . He 
encouraged delegations to consider how to take forwar d this mandated review.  
7  REVIEW OF THE APPLICATION OF THE PROVISIONS OF THE SECTION ON 
GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS UNDER ARTICLE 24.2  
7.1.  The Chair invited those delegations that had not yet provided responses to the Checklist of 
Questions (IP/C/13 and IP/C/13/ 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 indications . In line with the Council's 
recommendat ion 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/75  
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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 each Council meeting , the Chair updated delegations on the status of acceptances of the 
Protocol Amending the TRIPS Agreement and encouraged Members that were yet to notify their 
acceptan ce 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 Novem ber, the Council took up the annual review, pursuant to paragraph  8 
of the Decision, of the functioning of the system se t 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 March , the Council followed up its thirteen th annual review of developed 
country Members' reports on their implementation of Article 66.2.  
9.2.  At its meeting in Novem ber, the Council took up its fourteenth annual review of developed 
country Members' reports on their implementation of Articl e 66.2 . For this review, the Council 
reviewed the updates to the fifth 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 : Japan, Australia, Swi tzerland, Norway, Canada, the United States, New Zealand and the 
European Union and individual member States, namely Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, 
Germany, Ireland, Italy, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom . This documentation is 
being cir culated in document IP/C/W/ 616 and addenda.  
10  TECHNICAL COOPERATION AND CAPACITY -BUILDING  
10.1.   At its meeting in March , the Council followed up it s annual review of technical co operation 
held at its meeting in October  2015. 
10.2.   At its meeting in June, the Council inv ited 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 Novem ber. 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 Novem ber, the Council rec eived updated 
information from the following developed country Members : Japan, Australia, Switzerland, Norway, 
Canada, the United States, New Zealand and the European Union and individual member States, 
namely Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Est onia, Finland, France, Germany, Latvia, 
Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom  (being circulated in IP/C/W/ 617 and 
addenda) . In addition, information was submitted by Mexico (circulated in IP/C/W/615) . Updated 
information was also received  from the FAO,  UNCTAD,  the OECD , the GCC, WHO, ARIPO, WCO , 
WIPO  and UPOV  (being circulated in IP/C/W/ 614 and addenda), as well as from the WTO 
Secretariat (IP/C/W/ 618). 
11  INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND INNOVATION: EDUCATION AND DIFFUSION  
11.1.   At the request of the Australia, the European Union, Switzerland and the  United States, at 
its March  meeting the Council had on its agenda an item on "Intellec tual Property and Innovation : 
Education and Diffusion ". 
12  INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND INNOVATION: SUSTAINABLE RESOURCE AND LOW  
EMISSION TECHNOLOGY STRATEGIES  
12.1.   At the request of the European Union, Japan, Switzerland and the United States, and 
co-sponsored by Canada, Singapore and Chinese Taipei , at its June meeting the Council had on its 
agenda an item on "Intellectual Property an d Innovation : Sustainable Resource and Low Emission 
Technology Strategies ". IP/C/75  
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  13  WORK PROGRAMME ON ELECTRONIC COMMERCE  
13.1.   At the request of Canada, the Council had on its agenda an item on the "Work Programme 
on Electronic Commerce" at its meeting in June . It had before it a communication on the "Work 
Programme on Electronic Commerce" submitted by Canada (IP/C/W/613).  
14  INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND INNOVATION: REGIONAL INNOVATION MODELS  
14.1.   At the request of Australia, the European Union, Japan, Switzerland, Chinese Taipei and the 
United States, at its November meeting the Council had on its agenda an item on "Intellectual 
Property and Innovation : Regional Innovation Models".  
15  THE UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY -GENERAL'S HIGH LEVEL PANEL REPORT ON 
ACCESS TO MEDICINES  
15.1.   At the request  of Brazil, China, India and South Africa, at  its November  meeting the Council  
had on it s agenda an item on "The United Nations Secretary -General's High Level Panel Report on 
Access to Medicines ". 
16  INFORMATION ON RELEVANT DEVELOPMENTS ELSEWHERE IN THE WTO  
16.1.   At the Council's meetings in June and November, the WTO Secretariat provided an overview 
of the trade -related measures and experiences in the field of intellectual property rights as covered 
in WTO Trade Policy Reviews.  
 
17  OBSERVER STATUS FOR INTERNATIONAL IN TERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS  
17.1.   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 se requests.  
18  OTHER BUSINESS  
18.1.   At the Council's meeting s in February  and June , Ecuador informed the Council about the 
steps it was taking to advance its proposal regarding the issue of the contribution of intellectual 
property to facilitate the transfer of environmentally sound technology . 
18.2.   At the Council's meeting in November, Canada submitted an addendum to its earlier 
communication on the "Work Programme on Electronic Commerce" (IP/C/W/613/Add.1) and 
shared information with other Members on how it intended to approach the issue.  
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