IP/C/W/601  
 
13 October 2014  
(14-5795)  Page: 1/4  
Council for Trade-Related Aspects of 
Intellectual Property Rights  Original: English  
 
  TECHNICAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES: 
INFORMATION FROM MEMBERS 
AUSTRALIA 
The following communication, dated 6 October 2014, is being circulated at the request of the 
delegation of Australia. 
 Communications from other developed country Members will be circulated as addenda to this document. 
 
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1.  Australia is committed to sharing information with other WTO members on its technical and 
financial cooperation activities in the area of intellectual property rights in fulfilment of Article 67 of 
the TRIPS Agreement. This report updates Australia's 2013 report (IP/C/W/593/Add.7) on the 
Australia's intellectual property related technical cooperation activities with developing and least developed countries over the period 2013-14. We al so highlight some anticipated future work in 
this area. 
2.  Australia fulfils its Article 67 technical cooperation commitments through multilateral, regional 
and bilateral programmes and activities. Many activi ties are focused on developing countries in the 
Indo-Pacific region. Australia also works closely with the World Intellectual Property Organization 
(WIPO), the Association of Southeast Asian Nati ons (ASEAN) Secretariat and the Asia-Pacific 
Economic Cooperation's Intellectual Property Rights  Expert Group in assisting developing and least 
developed countries to build their IP capacity and systems. 
3.  Key websites containing information on Australia's intellectual property regime and which may 
be considered a technical cooperation resource include the IP Australia website covering patents, designs, trademarks and plant breeders' rights ( www.ipaustralia.gov.au ); the Attorney-General's 
Department website on copyright developments ( www.ag.gov.au/copyright ); and the Department 
of Foreign Affairs and Trade website on international IP developments ( www.dfat.gov.au/ip ). 
1  AUSTRALIAN ACTIVITIES WITH THE WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY 
ORGANISATION (WIPO) 
1.1  Australian-WIPO Funds-in-Trust 4.  The Australian Government has provided $A2 million to WIPO for 2012-15. This funding assists 
developing and least developed countries to build their intellectual property regimes and 
capabilities in facilitating innovation, creativity, investment and technology transfer. There are four 
themes under Australia's Funds-in-Trust, as refl ected in a Memorandum of Understanding signed 
between Australia and WIPO in June 2012. These themes are: development of the intellectual 
property system; technology transfer (knowled ge transfer and commercialisation); addressing 
neglected tropical diseases; and copyright and related rights to assist the blind, visually impaired and other persons with print disabilities.   IP/C/W/601 
 
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  5.  The following activities have been implemented under the theme of development of the 
intellectual property system  since Australia reported to the TRIPS Council in October 2013:  
 National Seminar on Copyright and Related Rights in Kiribati  (October 2013)  
 Provision of speaker for Global Intellectual Property Valuation Conference in Malaysia  
(November 2013), also attended by participants from the Philippines, Thailand and 
Viet Nam  
 Study visit in support of accession to the Madrid System of Trademarks – participants 
from Cambodia, Indonesia and Lao PDR  (February 2014) 
 Study visit of trademark and patent examiners – participants from Papua New Guinea  
(February-March 2014) 
 Sub-regional Workshop on Copyright, Creativi ty and Development for Decision Makers of 
South Pacific Countries, which was attended by participants from the Cook Islands, 
Fiji, Kiribati, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Re public of the Marshall Islands, Samoa, 
Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu  (March 2014) 
 Advisory mission to develop a National Intellectual Property Strategy in the Solomon 
Islands  (April – May 2014) 
 Advisory mission to develop a National Intellectual Property Strategy in Vanuatu  
(May 2014) 
 Advisory mission to develop a National Intellectual Property Strategy in Tonga  (May 
2014) 
6.  The following activities have been implemented under the technology transfer  (knowledge 
transfer and commercialisation) theme since Australia reported to the TRIPS Council in 
October 2013: 
 National workshop on Patent Drafting in Viet Nam  (September 2013) 
 National Advanced Training Programme on Successful Technology in Thailand   
(November 2013) 
 National Workshop on Patent Drafting and the Use of the Patent System in Indonesia   
(May 2014)  
 National Training on Successful Technology Licensing in the Philippines  (May 2014) 
 National Workshop on Patent Drafting and the Use of the Patent System in Thailand  
(June 2014) 
 National Training on Successful Technology in Indonesia  (June 2014) 
 Toolbox – Models of Institutional Legal Infrastructure for Knowledge Transfer for the 
benefit of LDC and developing countries .  This Toolbox is a guide for technology 
managers, especially in universities and institutions undertaking research and 
development. It is intended to provide information about key elements in developing an intellectual property policy and commercialisation protocols.  It also provides templates 
for most commonly used technology transfer agreements, with a focus on the Asia 
Pacific region. IP/C/W/601 
 
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  7.  The following activities have been implemented under the theme of addressing neglected 
tropical diseases in 2013-2014 under the auspices of the WIPO Re:Search  Project: 
 Placement of a Ghanian  university lecturer at the University of California San Francisco 
Liver Center (August-December 2013) 
 Placement of an Egyptian  p r o f e s s o r  a t  S t a n f o r d  U n i v e r s i t y  t o  w o r k  o n  t h e  e f f e c t s  o f  
schistosomiasis infections (June 2013-May 2014) 
 Placement of one researcher each from Cameroon  and Nigeria  with Novartis (Basel, 
Switzerland) to assist them learn about drug discovery and development (August-
October 2013)  
 Placement of a post-doctoral fellow from South Africa  with AstraZeneca (Bangalore, 
I n d i a )  t o  w o r k  i n  t h e  a r e a  o f  d i s c o v e r y  o f  i n h i b i t o r s  f o r  t u b e r c u l o s i s  ( A u g u s t - O c t o b e r  
2013). 
8.  Support has been provided to the Trusted Intermediary Global Accessible Resources 
(TIGAR) project under the copyright-related theme of the Funds-in-Trust. This project facilitates 
cross-border exchange of copyright-protected el ectronic files for books in accessible formats 
between national libraries and charitable institutions (trusted intermediaries) serving the blind, visually impaired and other persons with print disabilities.  
9.  Training in accessible book production for the Bangladesh  organisation "Young Power in Social 
Action (YPSA), for the Bangladesh Ministry of Education and for Bangladesh commercial publishers. Training for persons who are visually impaired on the use of reading devices. Ongoing technical assistance and support to YPSA and the Ministry  of Education in accessible book production. 
Publication of educational books for the blind and visually impaired in Bangladesh over the 
2013-2014 period.  
10.  Mission to Sri Lanka  in December 2013 to develop the TIGAR project to provide training to 
non-governmental organisations, the Ministry of Education and commercial publishers that do not 
possess up-to-date technical knowledge on how to produce accessible books. 
1.2  Other activities outside of the Funds-in-Trust 
11.  Separately, on behalf of WIPO, IP Australia provided a speaker for a regional seminar in the 
Republic of Korea  on Income Projection & Financial Foreca sting for IP Offices in October 2013. IP 
Australia also provided trade mark training in Brunei Darussalam  in March 2014. 
2   OTHER MULTILATERAL AND REGIONAL ACTIVITIES 
2.1  AANZFTA Economic Cooperat ion Support Programme (AECSP) 
12.  The ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand FTA Econ omic Cooperation Support Programme (AECSP) 
consists of a Support Unit within the ASEAN Secretariat and activities with funding to support this 
work for the five year period 2010-2015. The AECSP is designed to provide technical assistance 
and capacity building to help ASEAN Member States, particularly LDCs, implement the free trade agreement. Intellectual property is a vital comp onent, with the objective being to 'provide 
comprehensive support for the development of sound and balanced intellectual property systems 
in the AANZFTA region'. 
13.  Currently, IP Australia is providing an on-going regional patent training programme with 
support from the AECSP. The programme aims to enhance patent examination standards in 
participating offices.  It provides in-depth patent examination training based on IP Australia's 
existing competency-based programme.  It also pr ovides one-on-one mentoring by experienced IP 
Australia trainers using remote e-learning opportuniti es, as well as traditional face-to-face training.  
The IP offices of Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines were the first offices to participate in 
the two-year training programme which commenced in April 2013. Five countries are involved in the 2014 intake – Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam . A further 
patent examiner intake is planned for 2015. IP/C/W/601 
 
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  14.  IP Australia provided a speaker for the Ideal Patent Examination Workshop in Malaysia in 
August 2013 and for a Madrid Protocol training wo rkshop in Singapore in November 2013. It also 
presented at the Policy Workshop on Intellectu al Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional 
Knowledge and Traditional Cultural Expressions in Indonesia in June 2014. 
2.2  Cooperation with the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) 
15.  In February 2012 IP Australia and the African Regional Intellectual Property 
Organization  (ARIPO) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Industrial Property 
Cooperation. The MoU aims to build IP examiner ca pacity and facilitate the provision and exchange 
of information relating to IP training and quality standards.  ARIPO has 18 members, all of which are developing or least developed countries. These are Botswana, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibi a, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, 
Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.   
16.  In April 2013 an examiner from ARIPO and one from the Kenyan IP office joined IP Australia's 
inaugural regional patent examination training pr ogramme to build patent examination capabilities 
by improving examiner competence. Both ARIPO  and the Kenyan  intellectual prop erty office have 
a patent examiner participating in the 2014 intake, with WIPO support.   
3  BILATERAL ACTIVITIES 
17.  IP Australia provided a speaker for Madrid Protocol training in Malaysia in September 2013 
and a speaker on Trademark Judgement Drafting in Malaysia  in November 2013. It also provided 
geographical indications training in Singapore  in May 2014. 
18.  Representatives of the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service (ACBPS) deliver 
intellectual property training in relation to border measures and Australia's Notice of 
Objection Scheme  on request, ad hoc basis. For example, as foreshadowed in last year's report 
(IP/C/W/593/Add.7), the ACBPS Counsellor, India presented at the International Conference on 
Trade in Counterfeit, Pirated and Smuggled Goods.  This conference has been organised by the 
Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and the Committee Against Smuggling and Counterfeiting Activities Destroying the Economy on the benefits of international cooperation in 
enforcement. 
19.  ACBPS representatives also present and share their knowledge at international and 
regional conferences . For example, in May 2014, ACBPS representatives presented at two anti-
counterfeiting conferences in Hong Kong attended by representatives from customs 
administrations around the Asia Pacific region. The first conference was co-organised by the World 
Customs Organisation, the European Chamber of Commerce, and the European Union Academic Programme. The conference, International Cooperation to Fight Counterfeiting: the Real Deal,  
focused on raising awareness on the dangers of counterfeiting and promoting consumer health and 
safety as well as enhancing Customs' work in the region. The second conference was hosted by the International Anti-counterfeiting Coalition and focused on "21
st Century Border Protection: Rise of 
the Technologies". Both conferences encouraged communication, information sharing and building 
networks to increase collaboration and cooperation between Customs Administrations and the private sector.  
 
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