WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  IP/C/W/496/Add.6 
7 December 2007 
 
 (07-5433) 
Council for Trade-Related Aspects 
of Intellectual Property Rights Original:   English 
 
 
 
TECHNICAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES:  
INFORMATION FROM MEMBERS 
 
CANADA 
 
Addendum  
 
  The following communication, dated 19 October 2007, is being circulated at the request of 
the delegation of Canada.  It was circulated as an advance copy for the Council's October 2007 
meeting.  
_______________ 
 
 
1. Pursuant to Article 67 of the Agreement on Tr ade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property 
Rights (TRIPS), the Council for TRIPS requests th at 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 informat ion on Canada's activities concerning technical 
and financial cooperation in fa vour of developing and least-developed country Members.  
2. Canada has undertaken a number of technical c ooperation activities at the bilateral, regional 
and multilateral levels.  Canada's  bilateral efforts are mainly focussed on the Latin American, 
Caribbean and Asia-Pacific regions.  Canada's regional activities are ma inly undertaken in the context 
of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Intellect ual Property Rights Expert's Group (APEC-IPEG).  
At the multilateral level, Canada works in clo se collaboration with the World Intellectual Property 
Organization (WIPO). 
3. The following summary provides an update of th ese activities, which are mainly administered 
by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (C IPO), the Canadian International Development 
Agency (CIDA), Health Canada (HC) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). Other 
Canadian institutions such as the Centre for Trad e Policy and Law (CTPL) and the McGill University 
Faculty of Law and the Institute of Comparative Law are also involved in international cooperation 
efforts.   
I. BILATERAL ACTIVITIES 
4. CIPO offers to developing country Members a one-week Executive Workshop on 
Application of Management Techniques in the De livery of Intellectual Property Services.  This 
course is offered by CIPO in partnership with WI PO and has the following objectives:  (i) to enhance 
knowledge and skills in the area of management te chniques in the delivery of intellectual property 
services, with a view to improving the capacity of in tellectual property officials;  (ii) to provide 
participants with first-hand experience of the nature and scope of Canada's IP expertise, products and 
services;  and (iii) to provide a forum for the ex change of ideas and experiences with officials from IP/C/W/496/Add.6 
Page 2  
 
  other IP offices.  The course is targeted at senior-l evel officials.  In 2006, the five-day course was 
held from 15-19 May.  The participants include d delegates from Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, 
Chile, Jamaica, Malaysia, Mexico, Pa kistan, Peru, Thailand, and Uruguay. 
II. REGIONAL/MULTILATERAL ACTIVITIES 
5. Canada has undertaken a number of technical cooperation activities at the regional level and 
in multilateral fora.  Canada's regional activities are primarily undertaken in the context of the APEC-
IPEG.  At the multilateral level, Canada works in close collaboration with WIPO. 
6. CIDA provided funding in 2007 for a project on trade and health policy coherence at the 
national, regional, and international level.  Th e project was led by the World Heath Organization 
(WHO) and the North-South Institute.  One of th e key areas addressed by the project was access to 
medicine and the TRIPS Agreement.  The project is  now completed and a book will be released that 
will inform the ongoing discussion on intellectual property rights, trade, and health. 
7. Together with the WHO, the Canada-based Ce ntre for Trade Policy and Law (CTPL) and the 
Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA) are developing a diagnostic tool on trade and health 
destined for use in low-income countries.  The t ool includes a focus on TRIPS-related issues and their 
linkage with health policy.  CIDA provided fundi ng for the presence of developing country health 
officials at a 12 October 2007 meeting in Ottawa, Ca nada, to enable them to input into the design 
process. 
8. Health Canada continues to take opportuniti es at international venues to inform drug 
regulatory authorities from developing and least-d eveloped countries about Canada's Access to 
Medicines Regime (CAMR), which came into effect  in May 2005.  CAMR was established to enable 
Canada to respond to the 30 August 2003 decision of the WTO on the Implementation of Paragraph 6 
of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreemen t and Public Health and permit the export of 
versions of patented therapeutic products from Canada to developing and least-developed countries 
with inadequate manufacturing capacity.  As an ex ample, Health Canada provided information to 
drug regulatory authorities from African nations durin g World Health Organization consultations that 
took place in December 2006 and June 2007. 
9. In addition, Health Canada contributed to de veloping OECD Guidelines for the Licensing of 
Genetic Inventions, which include guidance on best  practices for governing licensing in genetics to 
address urgent and unmet health needs in developed and developing countries.  More generally, these 
guidelines, which focus on access for public health sy stems and health researchers,  provide a model 
governance mechanism for progressive licensing in h ealth sciences that would benefit health systems 
in developing countries as well as developed countri es with public health care systems.  Health 
Canada is working to develop a pproaches to optimally disseminate, publicize, promote and facilitate 
the uptake of the OECD Guidelines through a ra nge of appropriate ch annels in Canada.  
10. In terms of the RCMP, the Director of the RCMP Federal Enforcement Branch is the Co-
Chair of the Interpol Intellectual Property Crime Action Group (IIPCAG), a body which provides 
Interpol's General Secretariat with expert advice on all matters pertaining to IP Crime.  Fifty percent 
of the IIPCAG members come from law enforcem ent and fifty percent private-sector.  This 
international forum continually seeks to promote international cooperation and Intellectual Property 
Rights (IPR) training.  The RCMP, within the context of the IIPCAG, has contributed and continues to provide input towards training modules and IIP CAG's generic investigator's guide.  The RCMP 
and Interpol co-hosted the 2007 International La w Enforcement IP Crime Conference in Niagara 
Falls, Ontario, Canada from 19 to 21 June 2007.  The conference brought together over 370 police 
and customs personnel and stakeholders from 48 countries for the purpose of discussing trends, 
exchanging best practices and networking.  IP/C/W/496/Add.6 
 Page 3 
 
 
  11. CIPO provides services on an on-going basis fo r WIPO's technical cooperation activities in 
favour of developing and least-developed c ountry Members, including the following: 
• training of senior officials of intellectua l property offices of developing and least-
developed country Members upon request by WIPO, including on-the-job training in 
operational and administrative matters with a view to supporting modernisation of 
domestic intellectual property services; 
 
• performing state-of-the-art searches under the WIPO Patent Information Searches for 
developing countries; 
 
• providing search and examina tion reports of patent applications under the WIPO 
Programme of International Cooperation in th e Search and Examination of Inventions 
(ICSEI);  and 
 
• supplying free copies of Canadian patent  documents for developing countries, upon 
request from WIPO. 
 
12. Canadian awareness building and reference r esources are available for wide consultation 
through CIPO's website: www.cipo.gc.ca  . 
13. In the context of APEC-IPEG, Canada partic ipates actively in the organization's biannual 
deliberations aimed at sharing information and best practices on intellectual property rights. 
III. OTHER CANADIAN INSTITUTIONS AND RESOURCES 
14. Other Canadian institutions have also been involved in providing technical assistance to 
developing and least-dev eloped country Members. 
15. For example, the CTPL is a Canadian institu tion that provides developing and transition 
economies with guidance and support to sustain them  in the short term a nd with the knowledge and 
tools to ensure their full participation in interna tional trade agreements, including specific training on 
intellectual property law and policy issues.  CTPL o ffers a Certificate Programme in Trade Policy and 
Commercial Diplomacy each summer in Ottawa, Canada, that teaches the fundamentals of 
international trade agreements, trade policy formul ation, and trade negotiation skills.  The course 
includes a two-day module on TRIPS and related issu es.  The course, which continued in 2007, is 
attended primarily by government officials fro m developing countries and countries in transition 
whose attendance is sponsored by CIDA. 
16. The North-South Institute (NSI), a Canadian  organization conducting research relating to 
international development, together with Health  Canada hosted a confer ence in 2007 around CAMR.  
CIDA funded the presence of African countries at the NSI conference to learn further about the 
Canadian regime. 
17. The McGill University Faculty of Law and th e Institute of Comparative Law has led an 
eleven-year project which aims to assist Russi a's transition to a market-based economy through the 
development of the legal framework, inter alia , for private commercial relations.  CIDA provided 
funding for the project. Part of the project was de dicated to intellectual property under the Civil Code 
reform component of the project.  The review and reform of the Russian intellectual property law 
regime is of pressing importance, both for the immediate benefits that successful reform would 
generate in the Russian economy, and for complianc e with the requirements of Russia's accession to 
the WTO.  
__________