WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  IP/C/W/496 
28 September 2007 
 
 (07-4111) 
Council for Trade Related Aspects 
of Intellectual Property Rights Original:   English 
 
 
 
TECHNICAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES: 
INFORMATION FROM MEMBERS 
 
SWITZERLAND 
 
 
 The following communication, dated 25 September 2007, 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. 
_______________ 
  1. 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, IP/C/W/426/Add.2 of 8 Se ptember 2004, IP/C/W/455 of 5 October 2005 and 
IP/C/W/476 of 14 September 2006 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 Intellectual Property (hereafter "t he Institute") in the field of technical cooperation 
between 1 September  2006 and 31 August  2007.
1  Drafted along the same lines as the preceding 
reports, this document draws a distinction between multilateral 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 le vel, while avoiding duplication or overlapping of 
programmes. 
I. MULTILATERAL ACTIVITIES 
A. TECHNICAL COOPERATION IN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY 
ORGANIZATION (WIPO) 
1. Participation of representatives of the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property as 
speakers in workshops (co-) organized by WIPO 
2. At the request of WIPO, the Institute sent sp eakers to the following workshops and seminars: 
• A speaker from the Institute held several pr esentations at a Seminar on the protection of 
agricultural products through collective mark s and geographical indications in Tunis, 
Tunisia (27-28 November 2006); 
 
                                                      
1 Unless otherwise indicated. IP/C/W/496 
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  • A speaker from the Institute held a presen tation at an international symposium on 
21 March 2007 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on  industrial designs.  The 190 participants 
were from the public sector as well as designers and patent attorneys from the private sector; 
 
• A speaker from the Institute was invited to present the topic "Innovation systems in 
Switzerland" for officials from Brazil who ma de a study visit on Intellectual Property 
Strategy at WIPO, Geneva, Switzerland (5 July 2007). 
 
2. Training visits of delegations from third countries to the Swiss Federal Institute of 
Intellectual Property 
 
• As in previous years, a delegation of judges from Romania visited the Institute on 
10 November 2006 for an insight into the Swiss intellectual property law system.  The workshop focussed on intellectual property litigation; 
 
• Two delegations from China visited the Institu te in the context of their seminars at 
WIPO headquarters in Geneva.  Twelve heads of intellectual property offices 
(12 October 2006) and five judges (2 Februa ry 2007) were informed about the Swiss 
intellectual property law system; 
 
• A delegation from the Democratic People's Re public of Korea visited the Institute in 
order to discuss the economic role of the intellectual property system in modern economies, the provision of information on basic concepts of commercialization of 
IPRs, enhancing participants ' knowledge of (officials representing the Invention Office, 
State Administration for Quality Management and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) the 
management of IP assets (23 July 2007). 
 
3. Free-of-charge searches on the state of th e art for WIPO in favour of developing 
countries  
3. Between 1 September 2006 and 31  August 2007, the Institute conducted, upon request of 
WIPO, free-of-charge searches on the state of  the art for the following countries:  
  
Country Number of searches 
 
Burundi 3 
Chile      16 
Guinea 3 Kuwait 1 Mauritius 1 Morocco 4 
Niger 2 
Senegal 1 Trinidad and Tobago 4 
 
Total
 35 searches  
  IP/C/W/496 
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  B. TECHNICAL COOPERATION WITHIN OTHER INTERNATIONAL FORA  
• Participation of a speaker from the Institu te at WTO/IDB Regional Workshop on The 
TRIPS Agreement and Certain Topical Issues in  regard to Intellectual Property for Arab 
and Middle-Eastern countries, Kuwait-City, Kuwait (18-20 September 2006); 
 
• Participation of a speaker from the Institu te at WTO/IDB Regional Workshop on The 
TRIPS Agreement and Certain Topical Issues in related to Intellectual Property for French speaking African countries in Tunis, Tunisia (2-4 May 2007); 
 
• Seminar on fighting piracy and counterfeiting, Kiev, Ukraine (21-23 November 2006), in 
the framework of EFTA-Ukraine technical c ooperation.  Thirty-three customs and police 
officials as well as representatives from intell ectual property offices participated in the 
Seminar. 
 
II. BILATERAL ACTIVITIES 
4. 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 finished by 30 June 2007. 
Several tasks were successfully implemented: 
• The implementation of the new Vietnamese  IP Law was supported by two workshops 
for 160 participants from all provinces, in or der to make them familiar with the new 
Law.  16 speakers made presentations on the procedures for the registration of inventions, industrial designs and trademar ks, followed by expert discussions on these 
topics; 
 
• In a creativity competition at the College of  Natural Sciences, six inventions were 
awarded.  The preceding training course and information events were addressed to a large number of students and researchers, dealing with the effective use of patent information; 
 
• In cooperation with the Copyright Office of  Vietnam, a workshop was held for chief 
inspectorates of the provinces.  125 particip ants were instructed about enforcement 
measures in the copyright field; 
 
• A collection of lead cases in the field of  intellectual property the establishment of 
which was supported by the project now se rves as reference material supporting legal 
processes and enhancing transparency; 
 
• A publication of IP "success stories" on  the website of the National Office of 
Intellectual Property in Vietnam was compiled; 
 
• Several one- or two-day seminars reinforced  the implementation of the new IP Law: 
two seminars on collecting societies, two seminars on the Madrid and Hague 
Agreement and three seminars for university members on patent information were held.  
The seminars were jointly conducted by Viet namese and international experts, the latter 
submitting reports, including recommendations on the respective themes for 
Vietnamese agencies; 
 IP/C/W/496 
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  • Two training courses took place in Switzerland.   The first, in September 2006, was 
targeted to train 16 master trainers in the fi eld of intellectual property enforcement.  In 
addition to basic training at the Institute, participants visited the customs office, a 
private law firm active in IP enforcement, as well as WIPO.  The second training course, in December 2006, was addressed at university professors and teachers teaching 
intellectual property, designing a corresponding curriculum for students; 
 
• The project also contributed 50% to the costs of preparing the registration of the Vinh 
Orange  as a geographical indication (GI).
2  Overall, the project thus contributed to the 
registration of three Vietnamese GIs, in cluding Lang Son Sweet Fennel and Doan Hung 
Grapefruits; 
 
• Further to completing the traditional knowle dge database supported by the project, 
three multi-media documentations on Vi etnamese traditional knowledge were 
produced; 
 
• Finally, the project supported the establishment of a manual on industrial property 
enforcement, and the printing of broc hures with guidelines for the drafting of 
applications for industrial property registration.  
 
5. China:  A total of five delegations of representatives from different provinces of China 
(including the Vice-Minister of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC), representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and Academy of Agricultural Sciences,  the Tobacco 
Administration and industry, as well as other intellect ual property agencies and ministries) visited the 
Institute in the period under review for presentations on the Swiss intellectual property system as well 
as on the administration of intellectual property rights.  The visits took place on 15 August 2006, 
27 September 2006, 17 October 2006 as well as on 1 and 2 February 2007. 
6. India:  A meeting with the Principal Secretary of Higher Education of the Government of 
Karnataka, India, was held on 29 November 2006 in or der to provide practical insights in intellectual 
property teaching in Switzerland. 
7. Brazil, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya,  Serbia, and South Africa:  Together with 
AGRIDEA (Lausanne, Switzerland), the State Secr etariat of Economy (SECO, Switzerland), UMR-
Innovation (Montpelier, France), and WIPO, , the Ins titute co-organised an international training 
module on "Geographical Indications, A Way Forward for Local Development" in order to provide 
theoretical and practical training on the protection of geographical indications at the national and 
international level (Prangins, Switzerland, 14-25 Ma y 2007).  Participants came from a wide variety 
of countries, among which a fair number of deve loping countries which are referred to above. 
__________ 
 
                                                     
 
2 The other 50% of the costs were covered by the Vietnamese government budget.