WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  IP/C/W/517/Add.6 
11 November 2008 
 
 (08-5483) 
Council for Trade-Related Aspects 
of Intellectual Property Rights Original:   English 
 
 
 
TECHNICAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES: 
INFORMATION FROM MEMBERS 
 
AUSTRALIA 
 
Addendum  
 
  The following communication, dated 24 October 2008, is being circulated at the request of 
the Delegation of Australia.  It was circulated as an advance copy at the Council's October 2008 
meeting. 
 
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1. Pursuant to Article 67 of the TRIPS Agreem ent, the Council for TRIPS has requested an 
update from developed country Members regardi ng their technical and financial cooperation 
programmes, in the area of intellectual property righ ts (IPRs), and relevant to the implementation of 
the TRIPS Agreement.  The present document upd ates the report provided by Australia in 2002 
(IP/C/W/377/Add.2), 2003 (IP/C/W/408/Add.7), 2004 (IP/C/W/426/Add.6), 2005 (IP/C/W/455/Add.1), 2006 (IP/C/W476/Add.4) and 2007 (IP/C/W/496/Add.7). 
2. Australia fulfils its Article 67 technical coopera tion commitments at the bilateral, regional and 
multilateral levels.  Its cooperation activities are focu sed on developing countries, particularly in the 
Asia-Pacific region.  At the regional level, Aust ralia works closely with the APEC Secretariat and 
APEC's Intellectual Property Rights Expert Group (A PEC IPEG).  In the South Pacific, Australia 
works with the Pacific Island Forum to develop regi onal intellectual property standards and systems. 
3. The following provides an update of these activities, divided into bilateral and 
regional/multilateral cooperation un dertaken by the Australian Gove rnment.  Government agencies 
chiefly involved are IP Australia, the Australian Ag ency for International Development (AusAID), the 
Attorney-General's Department (AGD), and the De partment of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) 
and the Australian Federal Police (AFP). 
4. Key websites which contain extensive informa tion on Australia's intellectual property (IP) 
regime and which may be considered a techni cal cooperation resource include:  APEC IPEG 
(http://www.apecipeg.org) and the public educa tion and awareness resource (http://www.apecipeg-
pear.org), the IP Australia website covering patents, designs, trademarks and plant breeders' rights 
(http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au), AGD websites on copyright developments 
(http://www.ag.gov.au/copyright) and the DFAT website  which covers international IP developments 
(www.dfat.gov.au/ip). 
 IP/C/W/517/Add.6 
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  I. EXAMPLES OF BILATERAL ACTIVITIES 
A. P
APUA NEW GUINEA  
5. IP Australia provided training for four member s of the IP Office of Papua New Guinea (PNG) 
from 20 August 2008.  Three staff undertook a one-m onth trademark examiner training programme.  
Also, a legal officer from PNG's IP Office underwen t a three-month placement  with IP Australia, 
gaining experience in hearings, legislative and policy processes in most aspects of intellectual property. 
B. S
EPARATE CUSTOMS TERRITORY OF TAIWAN , PENGHU , KINMEN AND MATSU (CHINESE 
TAIPEI ) 
6. During the period 19-30 November 2007, IP Au stralia provided training for two trademark 
examiners from the Intellectual Property Office.  The aim of the training placement was to provide a comparison of trademark practices and legislation. 
II. REGIONAL/MULTILATERAL ACTIVITIES 
7. In addition to activities under the World Trade Organization, the World Intellectual Property 
Organization and other multilateral fora, Australia has a strong focu s on Asia Pacific technical and 
financial cooperation in the area of IPR. 
A. WTO
 GLOBAL TRUST FUND 
8. Since 2002, Australia has contributed almost $A 4 million to the WTO's Global Trust Fund.  
In June this year, the Government announced that  Australia would double its annual contribution to 
the fund to $A 1 million, demonstrating our commi tment to a successful conclusion to the Doha 
round.  The Trust Fund provides trade-related technical  assistance to developing country members of 
the WTO to participate in the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations. 
B. ASEAN  SEMINAR  
9. IP Australia worked jointly with WIPO to host a workshop titled " How to Enhance 
Intellectual Property Competitiveness in Select Industries in ASEAN ".  The workshop was held in 
Cambodia from 5-6 November 2007.  The focus of this  activity was to enhance the ability of Chamber 
of Commerce organizations and IP offices within  ASEAN to improve understanding of IPR issues 
among their members. 
C. ASIA-PACIFIC ECONOMIC COOPERATION (APEC)  - INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY EXPERTS 
GROUP (IPEG) 
10. Australia continues to play an active role in  the APEC IPEG and considers it an important 
forum to foster cooperation, share informati on and experiences and progress issues such as 
enforcement and cooperation.  The most recent APEC  IPEG meetings were held in Lima, Peru on 
12-15 June 2008 and 13-16 August 2008 and were atte nded by officers of the AGD and IP Australia.  
Australian officials presented on the Copyright Tribunal of Australia, on a survey on strategic 
consideration of IPR capacity building requirements,  being jointly delivered with China, and on the 
APEC IPEG public education and awareness on line resource (http://www.apecipeg-pear.org/). 
  IP/C/W/517/Add.6 
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  D. AUSTRALIAN LEADERSHIP AWARDS FELLOWSHIP  
11. The Australian Leadership  Awards Fellowship (ALA) programme was undertaken from 
4 February to 25 April 2008 with six participants fr om the IP Offices of China, India, Indonesia, 
Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam taking part.  The programme aimed to enhance management and 
leadership capabilities in the IP Offices through provision of trai ning and mentoring to one Fellow 
from each office.  Each Fellow was collocated within  a section of IP Australia relevant to their skills, 
including International Cooperation, Trad emarks, Finance, Patents and Designs.  
E. PUBLIC EDUCATION AND AWARENESS PROGRAMMES IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION  
12. In 2006-07, IP Australia continued its invol vement in delivering public education and 
awareness programmes for IP Offices in the region.  The APEC IPR Public Education and Awareness 
Platform  project aimed to equip developing Asia-P acific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Member 
Economies with the skills, tools and resources to  implement public education and awareness 
campaigns which promote the protection and enforcem ent of IPRs in the region.  The partners for 
coordination and delivery of this project incl uded Australia, Hong Kong, China, and Singapore. 
13. Activities in 2007-08 include developing a guide  for conducting market research, a model 
survey instrument to support the guide, and a workshop in Singapore during December 2007 on 
conducting and using market research for IPR campaigns.   
14. In 2007-08 Australia collaborated again w ith Hong Kong and Singapore to deliver APEC IPR 
Public Education and Awareness Market Research Best Practices  which aimed to increase the 
understanding of attitudes to IPR and the cha llenges posed by online piracy through supporting 
Member Economies to conduct market research.  Au stralia assisted in developing guidelines and 
survey instruments.  In addition, the workshop "Using Market Research to Develop Effective IPR 
Campaigns" was successfully held in Singapore from 12-14 December 2007. 
15. The third project being implemented by Austra lia, Hong Kong and Singapore, this time in 
2008-09, APEC IPR Public Education and Awareness Campaigns for SMEs , focuses on developing 
the capacity of APEC Member Economies to implement education and awareness campaigns which 
promote the effective use of the IPR system by small-medium enterprises. 
F. STRATEGIC CONSIDERATION OF IPR  CAPACITY BUILDING REQUIREMENTS IN APEC  MEMBER 
ECONOMIES  
16. Australia is leading and self-funding this initiative during 2008.  APEC Member Economies 
are asked to share information about their IPR ca pacity building requirements through completion of a 
survey of capacity building needs.  The anticipated benefits or outcomes of the survey include greater 
awareness and understanding of the IPR capacity bui lding requirements of APEC member economies; 
collective determination by IPEG of priority areas for capacity building supp ort based on the survey 
findings and more effective forward planning;  an d assistance to APEC IPEG project overseers to 
design more effective project proposals.  
G. PACIFIC ISLANDS FORUM COUNTRIES  
17. IP Australia continues to support the developm ent of IP systems and resources in Pacific 
Islands Forum Countries (FICs).  The strategy, a jo int effort between IP Australia and the World 
Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), builds upon previous work in the FICs. IP/C/W/517/Add.6 
Page 4  
 
  18. IP Australia and AusAID continue to assist th e FICs develop a regional system for processing 
trademark applications.  On 22 July 2008, a working group of Pacific IP Officials met in Rarotonga, Cook Islands to discuss a proposed change to  the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to 
implement the regional trademark application sy stem.  IP Australia and WIPO aim to support 
legislation, administration and infrastructure developments over the coming years to establish this 
system. 
H. IP
 ENFORCEMENT WORKSHOP  
19. On 18-19 June 2008, the Australian Federal Police hosted an IP Crime Workshop in 
Bangkok, Thailand.  The Workshop brought together over 25 police and customs officials from nine 
South East Asian countries, as well as IP law enforcement investigators from across the region.  The 
meeting's purpose was to: 
• exchange information on country specific IP crime related issues 
• exchange intelligence 
• foster interaction and collaboration between industry bodies and foreign law 
enforcement in the investigation of IP crime, and 
• discuss strategies for the future. 
 20. A second workshop is planned for November 2008 in Hong Kong, China. 
III. SEMINARS 
21. Australian officials presented papers at th e following regional and international fora: 
• APEC Seminar on "Capacity building for A PEC member economies to implement the 
Initiative on Anti-counterfeiting and Piracy ", Viet Nam, 31 May – 1 June 2007 
• APEC Workshop on "The Protection and En forcement of Intellectual Property Rights 
in the Digital Era, Viet Nam, 4-6 July 2007 
• APEC Regional Seminar on IPR Enforcemen t, Papua New Guinea, 28-29 August 2007 
• WIPO-ASEAN Seminar on the Use of IP to Enhance Competitiveness in Select 
Industries in ASEAN, 5-6 November 2007 
• APEC IPEG Workshop "Using Market Research to Develop Effective IPR 
Campaigns", Singapore, 12-14 December 2007 
• Advanced Techniques for Public Educa tion and Awareness Campaigns Workshop, 
Thailand, 27-29 March 2008 
• WIPO Asia-Pacific Regional Capacity Building Workshop on Formulation and 
Implementation of IP Development Plans, Singapore, 2-4 June 2008 
• WIPO Inter-Regional forum on Developmen t and Service-Oriented Intellectual 
Property (IP) Administration, Geneva, 1-2 July 2008. 
 
 
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