WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  IP/C/W/476/Add.7 
10 November 2006 
 
 (06-5410) 
Council for Trade-Related Aspects 
of Intellectual Property Rights Original:   English 
 
 
 
TECHNICAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES: 
INFORMATION FROM MEMBERS 
 
CANADA 
 
Addendum  
 
 The following communication, dated 25 October 2006, is being circulated at the request of the Delegation of Canada.  It was circulated as an advance copy for the TRIPS Council Meeting in 
October 2006. 
 
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Pursuant to Article 67 of the Agreement on Trade-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 favour of developi ng and least-developed country 
Members.  The present document provides informat ion on Canada's activities concerning technical 
and financial cooperation in favour of developing and least-developed country Members. 
Canada has undertaken a number of technical cooperation 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 regi onal activities are mainly undertaken in the context 
of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Intellectua l Property Rights Expert's Group (APEC-IPEG).  
At the multilateral level, Canada works in close collaboration with the World Intellectual Property 
Organization (WIPO). 
The following summary provides an update of these activities, wh ich 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 Tr ade Policy and Law (CTPL), the McGill University 
Faculty of Law and the Institute of Comparat ive Law and the Quaker International Affairs 
Programme are also involved in in ternational cooperation efforts. 
I. BILATERAL ACTIVITIES 
1. CIPO offers to developing country Member s a one-week Executive Workshop on Application 
of Management Techniques in the Delivery of Inte llectual Property Services.  This course is offered 
by CIPO in partnership with WIPO and has the following objectives:  (i) to enhance knowledge and 
skills in the area of management techniques in th e delivery of intellectual property services, with a 
view to improving the capacity of intellectual property o fficials;  (ii) to provide participants with first-
hand experience of the nature and sc ope of Canada's IP expertise, pr oducts and services;  and (iii) to 
provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and experi ences with officials from other IP offices.  The 
course is targeted at senior-level officials. IP/C/W/476/Add.7 
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  2. In 2005, the five-day course was held from 9- 13 May.  The participants included delegates 
from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Indonesia, Ma laysia, Mexico, Panama, the 
Philippines, Sri Lanka and Viet Nam.  
3. In June 2006, Health Canada and the State Food and Drug Administration of the Peoples 
Republic of China signed a joint Plan of Action wh ich includes technical cooperation in intellectual 
property related aspects of biologi cs, radiopharmaceuticals, pharmaceu ticals, natural health products, 
active pharmaceutical ingredients, adverse drug reactions, pharmacovigila nce, pharmacopoeia, Good 
Manufacturing Practices (GMP), medical devices, and inspection procedures. 
II. REGIONAL/MULTILATERAL ACTIVITIES 
4. 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. 
5. CIDA currently provides funding for a project on trade and health policy coherence at the 
national, regional, and internationa l level that is led by the Worl d Heath Organization (WHO) and the 
North-South Institute.  One of the key areas addressed  by the project is access to medicine and the 
TRIPS Agreement. 
6. In 2005-2006, Health Canada undertook a numb er of technical and financial cooperation 
activities.  Certain technical cooperation activities described below were undertaken as an aspect of 
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 Agreement and Public Health 
and permit the export of medical products from Ca nada to developing and least-developed countries 
with inadequate manufacturing capacity.  Health Cana da also provided additional information to the 
TRIPS Council to help it assess the effects of these measures. 
7. In December 2005, Health Canada initiated an  outreach strategy initiated to increase the 
visibility of CAMR and to address the informati on needs of potentially eligible countries.  A 
Government of Canada compact disk (CD) and we bsite were created to provide information to 
interested parties, and the CD has been distributed  to a number of NGOs in developing countries.  The 
information is available at www.camr.gc.ca. 
8. Health Canada also undertook efforts to increas e the visibility of CAMR internationally and 
build relationships with developing and least-develope d countries in need of essential medicines.  For 
example, Health Canada:  (a) delivered a presen tation on the CAMR at the International Conference 
of Drug Regulatory Authorities in Korea, 3-6 Ap ril 2006;  (b) provided an educational session to 
representatives from Uganda on 19 May 2006; and (c) provided information to regulatory authorities 
from the Caribbean Common Market (Caricom) at th e 18-19 September meeting organized by the Pan 
American Health Organization. 
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 systems and health researchers,  provide a model 
governance mechanism for progressive licensing in hea lth sciences that would benefit health systems 
in developing countries as well as developed countries with public healthcare systems.  IP/C/W/476/Add.7 
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  10. In terms of the RCMP, the Director of the RCMP Federal Enforcement Branch is the Co-
Chair of the Interpol Intellectual Property  Cr ime Action Group (IIPCAG).  Fifty percent of The 
IIPCAG Members come from law enforcement and fifty percent from the 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 IIPCAG's generic investigator's guide. 
11. CIPO provides services on an on-going basis for WIPO's technical cooperation activities in 
favour of developing and least-developed c ountry Members, including the following: 
• training of senior officials of intellectual property offices of developing and 
least-developed country Members upon request by WIPO, including on-the-job training in operational and administrative matters w ith 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 examination reports of  patent applications under the WIPO 
Program 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 particip ates 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 and 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 offe rs 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 issues.  The course is attended primarily by 
government officials from developing countries and countries in transition whose attendance is 
sponsored by CIDA. 
16. The McGill University Faculty of Law and the Institute of Comparative Law has led a five 
year project which aims to assist Russia's tr ansition to a market-based economy through the 
development of the legal framework for private comm ercial relations. CIDA pr ovided  funding for the 
project.  Part of the project was dedicated 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 compliance with the requirements of Russia's accession to the WTO. IP/C/W/476/Add.7 
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  17. In 2005, the Quaker International Affairs Progr amme developed and translated issues papers 
on trade-related intellectual prope rty rights.  CIDA provided fu nding for these activities.  These 
papers have been distribute d among developing countries to increase understanding of intellectual 
property rights issues in the context of trade nego tiations in multilateral, re gional and bilateral fora. 
 
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