IP/C/W/632/Add.3  
 
3 October  2017 
(17-5312) Page: 1/9 
Council for Trade -Related Aspects of Intellectual 
Property Rights  Original: English  
 
 
TECHNICAL COOPERATIO N ACTIVITIES:  
INFORMATION FROM MEM BERS  
CANADA  
Addendum  
The following communication, dated 20 September 2017 , is being circulated at the request of 
the delegation of Canada.  
 
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1  BRIEF OUTLINE IN TEC HNICAL COOPERATION O VER THE REPORTING YEAR  
1.  Pursuant to Article 67 of the Agreement on Trade -Related Aspects of Intellectual Property 
Rights (TRIPS), the Council for TRIPS requests that developed country Members report on their 
technical and financial cooperation programmes in fa vour of developing and least developed 
country Members. The present document provides an update on Canada's activities concerning 
technical and financial cooperation in the area of intellectual property in favour of developing and 
least developed country M embers, covering the 2016 -2017 period.  
2.  Canada has undertaken a number of technical cooperation activities at the multilateral, 
plurilateral and bilateral levels. At the multilateral level, Canada works in close collaboration with 
the World Intellectual Pro perty Organization and the Asia -Pacific Economic Cooperation Intellectual 
Property Rights Expert's Group (APEC -IPEG), where Canada participates in the organization's 
biannual deliberations aimed at sharing information and best practices on intellectual 
property rights.  
3.  The following summary provides an update of activities, which are mainly administered by 
the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO), Global Affairs Canada, the International 
Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the Royal Canadian Moun ted Police (RCMP). Other 
Canadian institutions that receive funding from the Government of Canada, such as the Centre for 
Trade Policy and Law (CTPL) and the University of Ottawa are also involved in international 
technical cooperation efforts.  
4.  Details of technical cooperation activities are provided in the Annex.  
 
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  IP/C/W/632/Add.3  
 
- 2 - ANNEX1 
TECHNICAL COOPERATIO N ACTIVITIES  FROM 1 SEPTEMBER 201 6 TO 31 AUGUST 2017  
Activity  Date  Location  Brief Description  Link to further 
details  
WIPO Programme of 
International 
Cooperation in the 
Search and 
Examination of 
Inventions (ICSEI).  Between 
1 September 
2015 and 
31 August 
2016 2 requests for 
Madagascar and 
3 requests for 
Djibouti  Providing search and examination reports of patent 
applications   
Supplying free copies 
of Canadian patent 
documents for 
developing countries  Upon request 
from WIPO     
CIPO collaboration with 
the Trade Facilitation 
Office (TFO), to offer 
a series of webinars  Between 
3 May and 
24 May 2016 Participants were 
from African and 
Latin American 
countries  Provided to embassies, consulates and businesses from 
developing and emerging countries.  
Topics covered : Basics of IP, How to file for patent in Canada, 
How to file for TM in Canada, and Patent application 
mechanisms (PCT, PPH).   
National Legislative 
Development project  Start:  
20 October 
2009 
Planned 
completion:  
28 September 
2018 Viet Nam  The objective of the project is to strengthen the legal 
foundations for economic growth through an integrated 
programme of reforms to the Vietnamese legislative 
development process. It addresses several priorities of 
the Government of Viet Nam 's legal refo rm agenda, including: 
the development of laws that are clear and more easily 
implemented; improved review of legislation to ensure that it 
is consistent internally and with other legislation; and more 
effective public participation in the lawmaking process . 
The project addresses these concerns through an integrated 
work programme addressing all points of the legislative 
development process, with attention to legislation that 
supports economic growth and development.   
                                                
1 In English only.   
  IP/C/W/632/Add.3  
 
- 3 - Activity  Date  Location  Brief Description  Link to further 
details  
Canadian -Caribbean 
Cooperation Fund  Start 
7 April 2003  
End 
31 December  
2016 Antigua and 
Barbuda, 
Anguilla, Belize, 
Grenada, 
Guyana, Jamaica, 
Saint Kitts and 
Nevis, Sain t 
Lucia, 
Montserrat, 
Suriname, 
Dominica, Saint 
Vincent and the 
Grenadines  The goal of the Canadian -Caribbean Cooperation Fund (CCF) is 
to advance public sector reform and to contribute to improving 
the environment for business development in the Caribbean.  
The purposes are: (1) to strengthen public sector entities for 
the effective and efficient delivery of services and (2)  to 
address bottlenecks to private sector development and 
business investment. Public Works and Government Services 
Canada (PWGSC) is the organization responsible for managing 
the CCF on behalf of Global Affairs Canada. PWGSC has 
established a network of lo cal fund coordinators, currently 
based in Guyana, Antigua, and Jamaica, who have been 
contracted to serve local needs, facilitate the application 
process and monitor local CCF initiatives. The CCF provides 
technical assistance in response to initiatives pr oposed by local 
government ministries, regional organizations, business 
associations or institutions such as universities. These 
initiatives aim primarily to increase local governments' 
capacities to formulate effective policies, to deliver efficient 
services, and to enhance the climate for 
business  development.  http://w05.internation
al.gc.ca/projectbrows
er-
banqueprojets/project
-
projet/details/A0312 6
8001 
Canadian Trade and 
Development Facility 
(CTDF)  Established:  
20 June 2014   CTDF provides technical assistance and capacity building to 
developing countries in order to help them negotiate, 
implement, adapt to and benefit from Free Trade Agreements 
(FTAs) and Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection 
Agreements (FIPAs) with Canada. The CTDF is comprised of 
three components: (1) an  Expert Deployment Mechanism 
(EDM),  which is not yet operational but will provide just -in-
time technical support to assi st developing countries 
negotiate, implement, adapt to, and benefit from bilateral or 
regional FTAs and FIPAs with Canada adapting to an FTA or 
FIPA with Canada; (2) an alliance with the Trade Facilitation 
Office (TFO) Canada, called the Trading Partners R esponsive 
Facility (TPRF), which is entails small -scale projects that 
respond to specific trade -related requests from Canada's 
trading partners from developing countries;  and (3) 
a commitment to consider the development of other 
sustainable economic growth  (SEG) projects, if required. 
The CTDF will be allocated up to $25 million per year.   
  IP/C/W/632/Add.3  
 
- 4 - Activity  Date  Location  Brief Description  Link to further 
details  
The key focus is on countries with which Canada has or is 
developing trade agreements, and the CTDF could be used to 
help developing countries implement the intellectual p roperty 
aspects of FTAs with Canada.  
Canada also supports TFO Canada in its mandate to inform 
developing countries on intellectual property, amongst other 
subjects  
Global Partnership on 
Open Data for 
Development  Start:  
1 January 
2015 
Completed:  
9 September 
2017 Global (Latin 
America and the 
Caribbean, 
Central and 
Eastern Europe, 
Asia, Africa)  Open data can help governments, businesses, and 
organizations share huge amounts of information with 
the public that can be used and re -used for a variety of social 
and economic purposes. The Global Partnership on Open Data 
for Development, a partnership with IDRC, the World Bank 
and Global Affairs Canada aims to scale open data innovations, 
and to strengthen coordination among other open data 
initiatives to  ensure they benefit people in developing 
countries.  
This program sought to help developing -country governments, 
entrepreneurs, and civil society create and implement national 
and global action plans to harness open data for development; 
to support develop ing country governments to plan, execute, 
and manage national open data initiatives; to increase reuse 
of open data in developing countries by supporting appropriate 
data standards, guidelines, solution -driven applications, and 
demand -side capacity, helpin g to bring about social and 
economic innovation; and to better understand 
the relationship between open data initiatives and socio -
economic development, informing the quality and reach of 
future open data initiatives.  
The project supported 8 open data sect orial efforts in 
agriculture, anti -corruption, cities, aid data, elections and 
more, trained over 1800 public servants and civil society 
innovators, tracked over 115 countries on the use of open 
data, supported 5 scaled and 18 tested innovations. An 
extern al evaluation of the program suggested it had 
significantly broadened the field and contributed to positive 
development outcomes. New projects are being planned to 
further expand the activities to new regions, including English 
Africa, Francophone Africa, and the Middle East and 
North  Africa.  http://od4d.net/result
/evaluation -of-the-
open-data-for-
development -
program -2014-2016/  
 
http://od4d.net/result
/od4d -annual -report -
2016/   
  IP/C/W/632/Add.3  
 
- 5 - Activity  Date  Location  Brief Description  Link to further 
details  
African Institute for 
Mathematical Sciences 
(AIMS):  Start:  
1 January 
2011 
Planned 
completion:  
30 September 
2017 AIMS centres  are 
located in 
Tanzania, South 
Africa, Senegal, 
Ghana, 
Cameroon and 
Rwanda.  IDRC is implementing Canada 's $20 million contribution to 
expand the network of Institutes for Mathematical Sciences in 
Africa.  AIMS provides rigorous mathematics training to post -
graduate African students. Mathematical sciences are 
the backbone of a modern economy. Solutions to complex 
challenges in health, agriculture, and finance, for example, all 
require advanced mathematical modelling skills. The Initiative 
supports Africa 's top students to enroll in a rigorous 10 -month 
graduate -level course that leads to a master's degree in 
mathematical science . 
In 2016, Canada announced an additional CA$22.6 million 
over five years to train African mathematical scientists to 
develop climate change adaptation and mitigation solutions 
through AIMS. This new Mathematical Sciences for Climate 
Change Resilience (MS4CR) project is now underway and will 
end in March 2022. The climate change stream will be starting 
in Rwanda and Tanzania in 2018, wit h select courses offered in 
all other AIMS centres.  http://idris.idrc.ca/ap
p/Search  
Scaling African 
Technology Start -Ups Start:  
3 March 2015  
Planned 
completion:  
1 July 2018 Egypt and South 
Africa  This project aims to explore whether and how networked, 
open, and collaborative innovations help technology start -ups 
scale and seize global economic opportunities. An 
interdisciplinary team of African researchers will study the 
economic potential of Afric a's emerging collaborative 
innovations in informal sector digital innovation enterprises, 
community -based businesses, entrepreneurship at high 
technology hubs.  
The UN Economic Commission for Africa invited the project 
researchers to participate actively in  policy discussions on 
regional integration and trade, and specifically to write 
the framework think piece for intellectual property, science, 
tech, and innovation policy in African international trade 
agreements, which they will present in Addis later in 2017. 
The project is similarly engaging as advisors to the Africa 
Group Negotiating Bloc on negotiations toward a new World 
Intellectual Property Organization treaty.  The project is also 
conducting the first ever research on African technology hubs, 
and wi ll be publishing it in the NYU law journal.  http://www.openair.or
g.za/  
  IP/C/W/632/Add.3  
 
- 6 - Activity  Date  Location  Brief Description  Link to further 
details  
Pervasive 
Technologies: Access 
to Knowledge (A2K) in 
the Marketplace  Start:  
18 February 
2011 
Completed :  
18 October 
2017 India This project explores the interplay between intellectual 
property and the production and deployment of pervasive 
networked technologies and seeks to provide a supply -side 
picture of how intellectual property plays a role in 
the proliferation of access technologies.  The resulting body of 
research sheds light on how to better promote access to 
knowledge in Asia, influencing intellectual property laws and 
practices.  https://www.idrc.ca/e
n/project/pervasive -
technologies -access -
knowledge -a2kin -
marketplace -0 
https://cis -
india.org/a2k  
Copyright and 
Innovation in the 
Developing World  Start:  
27 February 
2015 
Completed :  
27 November 
2017 India, Colombia, 
Brazil, and Chile  This project provides evidence to support governments 
grappling with intellectual property questions as they are key 
for facilitating economic growth and innovation in the digital 
economy. By exploring the difference  copyright law makes to 
economic, social, and cultural outcomes, this project will 
inform policies that support innovation and entrepreneurship 
in developing countries. This project is building a transnational 
index of changes in copyrights law in 15 count ries, studying 
the impact of copyright laws on the behavior of firms, and is 
developing sector -specific case studies. Finally, the project is 
looking into new forms of payment and reward for developing 
country -creators who wish to distribute their content.  https://www.idrc.ca/e
n/project/copyright -
and-innovation -
developing -world -0 
Scoping Study for 
Cyber Policy Capacity 
Building in Developing 
Countries  Start:  
10 April 2015 
Completed:  
10 April 2016 Global  This scoping project developed the conceptual background 
needed to achieve well -crafted cyber policies. The goal is to 
foster open, secure, and reliable information systems and 
communications infrastructure to support international trade 
and commerce. It aimed to explore the balance between 
sound, intelligent security while protecting free expression and 
innovation. The project team strove for multifaceted 
discussions of the challenges that exist where security,  human 
development, and civil liberties intersect. The funds were used 
to commission two scoping and background papers, and also 
to hold a workshop.  
The project has led to a fuller understanding of the cyber 
policy issues in the developing world. Pursuant to this project, 
the next phase is currently underway: IDRC has released 
a global call for institutions operating in the cyber policy space 
to receive further funding and capacity building in a pilot 
phase. The final selection of institutions is now underw ay, and 
funding is expected to begin in late 2017.  https://www.idrc.ca/e
n/content/call -
expressions -interest -
strengthening -cyber -
policy -centres -global -
south   
  IP/C/W/632/Add.3  
 
- 7 - Activity  Date  Location  Brief Description  Link to further 
details  
Canadian International 
Food Security Research 
Fund (CIFSRF)  Launched in 
2009 
 Sub-Saharan 
Africa, South 
Africa, Kenya, 
Trinidad and 
Tobago, 
Tanzania, Sri 
Lanka and India  Partnerships between Canadian and developing country 
researchers  is one way that IDRC helps support technology 
transfer. CIFSRF, funded by IDRC and Global Affairs Canada, 
supports research in agricultural innovation and fosters 
collaboration between developing -country researchers and 
Canadian experts.  Now in its second  phase, CIFSRF is building 
on earlier results to reduce post -harvest losses and 
commercialize livestock vaccines:  
 Contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP), a highly 
contagious respiratory disease of cattle, has serious 
economic and trade consequences for s ub-Saharan 
Africa. Researchers from Kenya and Canada are now 
testing a highly efficient vaccine.  
 Researchers from South Africa and Canada have 
developed a novel vaccine that protects livestock from 
multiple deadly diseases in a single dose. Collaboration 
with regulatory bodies, agricultural ministries, 
professional associations, and vaccine producers has 
begun, and is expected to bring this much -needed 
innovation to farming families in South Africa, Kenya, 
and beyond.  
 Researchers from Canada have developed a natural 
compound known as hexanal to delay the ripening of 
mangoes and decrease spoilage. Spraying mangoes with 
hexanal earned farmers up to 15% more by allowing 
them to get more, better quality fruit to market later in 
the season. The researchers are pa rtnering with 
institutions in India and Sri Lanka to further develop and 
commercialize technologies to extend the shelf -life of 
fruit. Several products, including sprays and specialized 
packaging, have been developed and are being tested.  http://www.idrc.ca/EN
/Documents/CIFSRF -
Call-5-1-
Backgrounder -
ENG.pdf  
Collaborative 
Adaptation Research 
Initiative in Africa and 
Asia (CARIAA)  2014-2019 Africa and Asia  This initiative, funded jointly by IDRC and the UK 's 
Department for International Development,  supports four 
research consortia with a range of regional, scientific and 
socio-economic development expertise to explore the physical, 
social, economic and political dimensions of vulnerability and 
adaptation options in the climate change hotspots of deltas, 
semi-arid lands, and glacier -dependent basins.  http://cariaa.net   
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- 8 - Activity  Date  Location  Brief Description  Link to further 
details  
 In addition to exploring proactive, longer -term 
approaches to climate change adaptation while 
supporting the management of curr ent risks in 
14 countries across Africa and Central and South Asia, 
researchers working with Adaptation at Scale in Semi -
Arid Regions (ASSR), have also held training 
programmes on regional climate modelling, regional 
integrated assessment tools.  
 As part of  their large -scale project in the Deltas, 
Vulnerability and Climate Change: Migration and 
Adaptation (DECCMA) program, researchers are 
exploring the potential for stakeholder engagement at 
the technical assistance level in Bangladesh and Ghana.  
Researchers  in the Himalayan Adaptation, Water and 
Resilience (HI -Aware) consortium are developing short - and 
long-term climate adaptation strategies, resulting in up -scaling 
and out -scaling of institutional and local adaptation 
innovations. Pilot projects have been developed for climate 
resilient agriculture, flood resilient housing, floods, and 
addressing heat stress. Findings informed new support for 
Nepal from Global Environment Facility.  
International 
Intellect ual Property 
Crime Training 
Seminars hosted by 
Interpol  Since 2007   The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has contributed to 
the seminars each year.  The seminars have been given to 
participants from developed and least developed countries, 
facilitating the exchange of best practices and techniques, and 
networking   
Permanent Forum on 
International 
Pharmaceutical Crime 
(PFIPC)  Ongoing   The RCMP and Health Canada are also  members of the forum. 
It re -groups 17 developed countries and members from 
the private sector,  allowing for the exchange of best practices, 
information on trends and enforcement initiatives and 
networking.   
Operation PANGEA IX  
(International Week of 
Action to raise public 
awareness of the risks 
of buying medicines on 
the internet)  June 2016   The RCMP, Health Canada and the Canada Border Services 
Agency participated in Operation PANGEA IX organised by 
the PFIPC and Interpol.  A total of 103 countries participated 
which saw 400 arrests worldwide and the seizure of $53M (US) 
worth of fa lsified medicines and the shutdown  of 5000  illegal 
online pharmacies .   
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- 9 - Activity  Date  Location  Brief Description  Link to further 
details  
Centre for Trade Policy 
and Law – guidance, 
support, knowledge  
and tools    Canada -based Centre for Trade Policy and Law (CTPL) is 
a Canadian institution that provides developing and transition 
economies with guidance and support to sustain them in 
the short-term and with the knowledge and tools to ensure 
their full participation in international trade agreements, 
including specific training on intellectual property law and 
policy issu es.  
Open African 
Innovation Research 
Network (Open AIR)  Ongoing  Africa and Ottawa  Open AIR is a unique collaborative network of researchers 
spread across Africa and Canada. Their research aims to ease 
tensions between IP and access to knowledge, and to 
understand how knowledge -based businesses can take 
advantage of global opportunities, while sharing the benefits 
of innovation throughout society. Open AIR is funded by 
Canada 's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) 
and is in year three of a seve n-year Partnership Grant from 
the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council 
(SSHRC). They recently were also selected for the Queen 
Elizabeth Scholars – Advanced Scholars program.  http://www.openair.or
g.za 
 
 
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