WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  IP/C/W/455 
5 October 2005 
 (05-4466) 
Council for Trade-Related Aspects 
of Intellectual Property Rights Original:   English 
 
 
TECHNICAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES: 
INFORMATION FROM MEMBERS 
 
SWITZERLAND 
 
 
 The following communication, dated 28 September 2005, is being circulated at the request of the Delegation of Switzerland.   Communications from other developed country Me mbers will be circulated as addenda to this 
document. 
 
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  Following documents IP/C/W/12/Add.3 of 13 September 1995, IP/C/W/34/Add.2 of 
17 September 1996, IP/C/W/77/Add.3 of 30 Se ptember 1997, IP/C/W/109/Add.1 of 4 September 
1998, IP/C/W/154/Add.2 of 8 October 1999,  IP/C/W/203/Add.1 of 13 September 2000, 
IP/C/W/306/Add.3 of 18 September 2001, IP/C/W/3 77/Add.9 of 24 January 2003, IP/C/W/408/Add.4 
of 14 November 2003 and IP/C/W/426/Add.2 of 8 September 2004, in which much of the description 
of the aims and organizational aspects of technical cooperation remains relevant, this report describes 
the activities of the Swiss Federal Institute of Inte llectual Property (hereafter "the Institute") in the 
field of technical cooperation between 1 September  2004 and 31 August  2005.
1  Drafted along the 
same lines as the preceding reports, this documen t draws a distinction be tween multilateral activities 
and bilateral activities.  It should be recalled that the concern of the Swiss authorities is to ensure 
optimum coordination of available resources, both at the multilateral and bilateral level, while 
avoiding duplication or overlapping of programmes. 
 
I. MULTILATERAL ACTIVITIES 
1. Technical cooperation in the framework of the World Intellectual Property 
Organization (WIPO) 
(a) Annual basic training programme at WIPO 
From 2 to 30 June 2005, two experts from India and Tanzania respectively, took part in a 
training course which was held at WIPO in Geneva and at the Institute in Berne.  At WIPO, the 
experts attended the Interregional Seminar on I ndustrial Property from 1 to 3 June 2005.  The 
programme at the Institute from 6 to 30 June 2005  covered the entire field of intellectual property, 
focusing in particular on patents, trademarks, i ndustrial designs and copyright.  Emphasis was put on 
the practical, administrative and organizational work.  As in the past, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation of the Federal Department (Ministry) of Foreign Affairs financed the 
entire programme.  Costs related to  teaching and other guidance for the two experts in Berne were 
covered by the Institute. 
                                                     
 
1 Unless otherwise indicated. IP/C/W/455 
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 (b) Participation of representatives of the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property as 
speakers to Workshops (co-) organized by WIPO 
  At the request of WIPO, the Institute  sent speakers to the following workshops: 
 
• OAPI (Ministry of Commerce and Industry Mali, WIPO and the Swiss Agency for 
Development and Cooperation, Bama ko, Mali, 13 - 16 September 2004):  
 
Workshop on services for the acquisition and management of intellectual property rights from universities and research and deve lopment institutions.  Four presentations 
in the field of intellectual property rights were given by a speaker from the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property:  
 
1. General overview in conjunction with e ducation, research, public interests and 
intellectual property rights. 
 2. Intellectual property and political implications. 
 
3. Access to information in the field of  intellectual property and its use for 
universities, institutions of research and development and the industry. 
 4. Practical exercise in the field of research  of technical information (patents and 
trademarks). 
 
Participants came from the following count ries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, 
Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Côte  d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, 
Guinea Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, and Togo.  
 
• OAPI, ASEAN, CEEC:  WIPO Workshop on services for the promotion of innovation 
and their management (7 December 2004).  Held at WIPO (Geneva), the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Lausanne), the Swi ss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property 
(Berne) and the Swiss Federal Ins titute of Technology (Zurich).   
 Participants came from the following countries:  Albania, Benin, Bosnia-Herzegovina, 
Burkina Faso, Former Yugoslav Republic of  Macedonia, Gabon, Laos PDR, Lebanon, 
Madagascar, Mali, Nicaragua, Niger, Paragua y, Serbia and Montenegro, Syria, and 
Togo. 
 
• WIPO, Geneva: Forum on Intellectual Pr operty and Small and Medium Sized 
Enterprises for Intellectual Property Offices of OECD Countries and South 
Mediterranean Countries (25-26 May 2005). 
 
• WIPO, Geneva: Summer School on Intellectual Property (8 July 2005).  Presentation 
on the topic 'Management of Intellectual Property Assets in the Private Sector'. 
 
(c) Training visits of delegations fro m third countries to the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual 
Property 
In November 2004, a delegation of judges from Ro mania visited the Institute for an insight 
into the Swiss intellectual property law system.  The Workshop included the study of practical 
intellectual property cases recently decided by Swiss courts.  IP/C/W/455 
 Page 3 
 
 
 A total of nine delegations of representatives from different provinces of China visited the 
Institute in the year under review for presentations on the Swiss intellectual property system as well as on 
the administration of intellectual property rights by the Institute.  
(d) Free-of-charge searches on the state of the art for WIPO in favour of developing countries  
Between 1 September 2004 and 31 August 2005, th e Institute conducted, upon the request of 
WIPO, free-of-charge searches on the state of the art for the following countries (50% of the searches 
were financed through the Institute 's ordinary budget and 50% of the searches were financed by the 
Swiss Agency for Development and Coope ration (Ministry of Foreign Affairs): 
  
 Country Number of searches  
 
 Côte d'Ivoire 1  Cuba 1  Jamaica 1   Mauritius 2  
 Morocco   19   
 South Africa 1  Syria 1   Trinidad and Tobago 5  Viet Nam 14      Total
 45 searches  
 
 
2. Technical cooperation within other international fora  
Presentations on 'Intellectual pr operty and innova tion' were given by representatives of the 
Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property also on the following occasions: 
 
• Third International Forum on Creativity and Invention – a Better Future for Humanity 
in the 21st Century, Cape Town, South Africa, 19 to 21 May 2005.  
 
• European Patent Academy, Munich, Germany, 8 July 2005, event for CIS country 
delegates. 
 
II. BILATERAL ACTIVITIES 
1. Socialist Republic of Viet Nam:  The 'Special Programme of Cooperation' based on the 
Agreement on the Protection of Intellectual Propert y and Co-operation in the Field of Intellectual 
Property between Switzerland and the Socialist Repub lic of Viet Nam continued for the fourth year 
with the implementation of several important tasks and programmes:  
 
• In September and October 2004 a training course was organized for officials from the 
Copyright Office (COV).  The course for the COV focused specifically on copyright, in 
particular on the collecting societies, copy right in the digital era and in the area of 
broadcasting and copyright enforcement. 
• In November and December 2004, training for 10 officials of enforcement agencies took 
place in Berne, Basel, Zurich and Geneva.  The delegation visited the Swiss Federal 
Institute of Intellectual Property, the Swi ss Customs Administration, WIPO and WTO as 
well as representatives of the private sector. IP/C/W/455 
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 • The preparation of intellectual property re lated materials for universities and other 
educational institutions as well as English language courses for intellectual property 
officials continued. 
• A branch office of the National Office of In tellectual Property (NOIP) was established in 
Ho Chi Minh City in December 2004.  This  served as a model for the establishment of 
another branch office in Da Nang af ter experience had been capitalized. 
• Guidelines for the applications of industrial property rights were completed in the course 
of 2005. 
• A high level visit of Members of Parliament involved in the drafting of Viet Nam's new 
intellectual property law took place fro m 28 February to 4 March 2005. 
• In April 2005, an expert of the Institute held  a series of seminars for university teachers in 
Viet Nam on the way to teach intellect ual property ("train the trainers"). 
• A seminar on the protection of traditiona l knowledge (TK), the organization of TK 
collection and the establishment of a database was given by Swiss and Vietnamese experts in May in Viet Nam.  On that occasi on, an expert of the Institute discussed the 
current problems linked to the protection of TK  in Viet Nam with specialized Vietnamese 
institutions.  In the year under review, th e establishment of the database on traditional 
knowledge related to medicinal plants was al so completed, with more than 50 plants 
being registered at the time of reporting. 
• An electronic database system was estab lished for the administration of copyright 
registrations, including access from branch offices. 
• In order to increase the capacity of intell ectual property enforcement officials, in 
particular from the Inspectorate of Science and Technology and from the Market Control, 
two training courses were held in Hanoi in J une by Vietnamese experts previously trained 
in Switzerland.   
• Two seminars on the protection of geographical  indications were organized in August in 
Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.  Assistance was given to NOIP's project of support for enterprises interested in making use of and promoting geographical indications for their 
products. 
 
2. Lebanon:  In the context of the conclusion of  the Free Trade Agreement between EFTA States 
and Lebanon, Switzerland and Leba non signed a Memorandum of Unde rstanding in February 2004, 
defining a bilateral programme on technical assistan ce.  Under this Memorandum, it is provided that 
Switzerland will support Lebanon in defining and im plementing a strategy for the protection of 
Lebanese geographical indications.  In  this context, a first mission was carried out by a Swiss Expert 
in February 2005.  The objective of the mission was to  take stock of the current situation in Lebanon 
with regard to geographical indica tions and to draft a strategy for the elaboration and implementation 
of a sound geographical indications protection system in the country. 
 
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