WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
IP/C/W/560/Add.5 
14 October 2011  
 
(11-5087) 
Council for Trade-Related Aspects of 
Intellectual Property Rights Original:   English 
 
 
 
TECHNICAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES: 
INFORMATION FROM MEMBERS 
 
SWITZERLAND 
 
Addendum 
  
 The following communication, dated 8 October 2011, is being circulated at the request of the 
delegation of Switzerland. 
 
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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, IP/C/W/426/Add.2 of 8 Se ptember 2004, IP/C/W/455 of 5 October 2005, 
IP/C/W/476 of 14 September 2006, IP/C/W/496 of 28 September 2007, IP/C/W/514/Add.4 of 
17 October 2008, IP/C/W/536/Add.3 of 20 Octobe r 2009, and IP/C/W/550/Add.2 of 20 October 2010, 
in which much of the description of the aims a nd organisational aspects of technical cooperation 
remains relevant, this report descr ibes the activities of the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual 
Property (hereafter "the Institute") in the field of technical cooperation between 1 September  2010 
and 31 August  2011
1.  Drafted along the same lin es as the preceding repor ts, this document draws a 
distinction between multilateral and b ilateral activities.  It is the obj ective of the Swiss authorities to 
ensure optimal coordination of av ailable resources, both at the multila teral and bilateral level, while 
avoiding duplication or overlapping of programmes.  
I. MULTILATERAL ACTIVITIES 
A. T
ECHNICAL 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 
 An expert from the Institute gave a presentation on IP rights at the WIPO Academy 
(26-29 April 2011). 
 
 An expert from the Institute lectured at the WIPO Summer School on the topic 
"Assessment of IP rights" (July 2011). 
                                                      
1 Unless otherwise indicated. IP/C/W/560/Add.5 
Page 2  
 
  2. Free-of-charge searches for WIPO in favor of developing countries  
Since 1987, the Institute has participated in  the "WIPO Patent Information Services for 
Developing Countries (WPIS)" which WIPO set up and operates for handling individual requests for patent information (state-of-the -art search reports).  Additionally, since 
1 January 2011, the Institute has also partic ipated in the "International Cooperation on 
Examination (ICE)" part of WPIS.  The Institu te thus not only establishes "state-of-the-art 
search reports", but also "search and examination reports"
2.  These types of reports are 
established to facilitate nationa l patent applications in the benefiting countries.  This 
programme supports the national patent offices in building up their competencies in search 
and examination procedures, and helps to stre ngthen the patent system and legal certainty 
worldwide. 
 Between 1 September 2010 and 31 August 2011, the Institute conducted, at the request of 
WIPO, free-of-charge searches for the following countries and organisations: 
  
Country Number of searches 
 
WPIS-Searches: 
Mexico 1 
South Africa 2 Trinidad and Tobago 4 
 
ICE-Searches: 
Bahrain 5 
 
Total 12 searches 
 
 
B. TECHNICAL COOPERATION WITHIN OTHER INTERNATIONAL FORUMS  
 The European Patent Office (EPO) has been  entrusted by the European Commission to 
implement a project on the protection of intellectua l property rights with the People's Republic of 
China (EU-China IPR2).  As Switzerland is a Memb er of the European Patent Organization, the 
Institute therefore contributed to the experts pool of the project, and participated regularly in the IPR2 
European Project Committee Meetings.  
II. BILATERAL ACTIVITIES 
1. China:  Delegations from Hong Kong, China a nd Zhejiang were welcomed  at the Institute and 
introduced to the Swiss intellectual property system.  Additionally, two workshops on the 
protection of trademarks and on the relations hip between media and IP issues were conducted 
(5 and 23 May 2011). 
 
2. Ghana:  The cooperation project "Strengtheni ng the Intellectual Property Rights in Ghana" 
was started in 2009.  During the reporting in terval, the following activities have been 
undertaken: 
 
 The National Intellectual Property Policy Committee (NIPPC) has been inaugurated. 
 
                                                      
2 See <http://www.wipo.int/patentscope/en/data/developing_countries.html> and 
<http://www.wipo.int/sme/en/documents/wpis.htm>.  IP/C/W/560/Add.5 
 Page 3 
 
 
   A workshop took place in Accra to set up a road  map for drafting a National IP Policy;  
in addition, a background paper was prepared to give an overview of existing Ghanaian 
policies relating to IP (D ecember 2010 - March 2011).  
 
 Reviews of the laws on Trademarks, I ndustrial Design, Patents, Geographical 
Indications and Plant Varieties were carried out by Ghanaian and Swiss experts.  
Several stakeholder workshops and meetings were held in Ghana and in Switzerland for 
the final validation of the draft laws (March – June 2011).  
 A seminar on IP awareness with specific reference to SME was held in collaboration 
with the National Board for Small Scale Industries (February 2011).  
 A two-day colloquium for judges from the Appeal and High Courts of Ghana was held 
in collaboration with WIPO and with the Judicial Training Institute (March 2011). 
 
 The Cooperation Project funded the participation of a representative of the Ghanaian 
Register Department General in the tw o-week in-depth training on Geographical 
Indications in Geneva (6-17 June 2011, cf. I.A.1. above). 
3. Jamaica:  The cooperation project between th e Institute and the Jamaica Intellectual Property 
Office (JIPO), the objective of which was to establish a protection system for geographical 
indications (GIs) in Jamaica, was formally closed  in July 2011 after a duration of 3 years.  
Between 1 September 2010 and the closing, the following activities were implemented:  
 
 The project co-funded the creation of the new JIPO website, which includes general 
information on GIs. 
 
 A case-study on the socio-economic impacts of GI protection in Jamaica, which 
included study visits and interviews with JIPO and GI producers of coffee, jerk and 
rum, was prepared and distributed  to Jamaican partners (June 2011). 
 
 Two representatives of Jamaica took part in an in-depth training on Geographical 
Indications in Geneva, Switzerland (6 -17 June, 2011, cf. I.A.1. above). 
 
 The project assisted Jamaican producers associa tions in the finalisation of the Code of 
Practices of selected Jamaican products. Add itionally, the Jamaican Certification Body 
was supported in the establishment of a transparent certification process 
(March - May 2011).  
 
4. Kenya:  The cooperation project between th e Institute and the Kenyan Industrial Property 
Institute (KIPI), the objective of which was to establish a protection system for geographical 
indications (GIs), was formally closed in June  2011 after a duration of three years.  Between 
1 September 2010 and the closing, the following activity was implemented: 
 
 A 5-day advanced capacity-building training for KIPI's GI Team on administration of a 
GI registration/protection system, using best practices for evaluation of potential GI 
products, was conducted by an internationa l expert in Nairobi (December 2010).  
 IP/C/W/560/Add.5 
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  III. WTO-ACCEDING COUNTRIES:  
1.  Lao PDR:  In January 2011, the Institute started to implement the Swiss-Lao Intellectual 
Property Project (LIPP).  The overall objective of this project is to contribute to the strengthening of Lao PDR's IPR system towards compliance with the WTO-TRIPS Agreement in order to improve the country's access  to international markets.  Up to now, the 
following activities have been implemented: 
 
 A training course on public awareness rais ing on IP rights was held in Bern for 
11 participants from the Laotian Department  of Intellectual Property, Standards and 
Metrology, the Lao PDR Chamber of Commerce, the Lao PDR Ministry of Industry and Commerce, the National Authority for Science and Technology, and the Lao PDR 
National University.  The training course in cluded a visit to WIPO in Geneva and a 
field visit on GIs to Gruyere (14-20 February 2011). 
 An awareness raising seminar for enterprises with a total of 50 participants from most 
Lao PDR provinces was organized in Vientiane, in collaboration with the Lao PDR Chamber of Commerce, the SME Developm ent Center, and WIPO (16 May 2011). 
 Based on the Institute's successful cooperati on with the National Office of Intellectual 
Property (NOIP) of Viet Nam, Vietname se experts, who had been trained as 
international instructors by the Institute were  transferred to the Swiss-Lao Intellectual 
Property project. 
2. Montenegro:  An expert from the Institute participated in a two-day workshop on the TRIPS 
Agreement in Podgorica for the staff of Monteneg ro's IP Office, other government officials, 
producers of local products (geographical indica tions) and representatives of law firms.  The 
expert gave presentations on the TRIPS Agre ement (overview, its implementation and 
impacts on the economy and society of a WTO Member country) and on the functioning of the Institute (23-24 March 2011). 
 
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