WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONIP/C/W/375
12 September 2002
(02-4819)
Council for Trade-Related Aspects
of Intellectual Property Rights
WTO SECRETARIAT TECHNICAL COOPERATION IN THE TRIPS AREA
Note by the Secretariat
1. This document updates the information on the WTO Secretariat's technical cooperation
activities in regard to TRIPS matters contained in document IP/C/W/304, dated 12 September 2001.It covers the period from 1 September 2001 to 13 September 2002.  It focuses on the Secretariat's
technical cooperation activities that specifically relate to intellectual property.  However, it should be
noted that the general technical cooperation and training activities of the WTO Secretariat usually
cover intellectual property.  These activities as they relate to intellectual property matters are briefly
discussed in the last section of this note.
Main Orientations
2. The focus of the Secretariat's technical cooperation activities specifically in relation to TRIPS
has continued to be on assisting Members to understand the rights and obligations which flow from
the TRIPS Agreement.  It has been aimed at helping Members to assess the amendments that may be
needed to their national legislation, the adaptations in institutions that may be called for and other
requirements for which they would need to plan, and to train staff, both for these purposes and for theactual implementation of TRIPS-consistent legislation in the fields of standards and enforcement.
The purpose has also been to assist Members to participate fully in the operation of the TRIPS
Council, including to meet their procedural obligations under the Agreement and to participate fully in
the Doha work programme.
3. The technical cooperation made available has been essentially driven by demand from
Members.  The Secretariat has also provided assi stance to countries seeking to join the WTO by
helping them to prepare for the accession process and by training officials.  Priority continues to be
attached to assistance to least-developed countries.  Importance has been attached to ensuring
complementarity and cooperation with other intergovernmental organizations, in particular WIPO.
The main modes of supply of technical cooperation specifically relating to the TRIPS Agreementhave been information and advice given to Members in Geneva, study programmes, training courses,
seminars and workshops for developing countries in Geneva and elsewhere, and, to a lesser extent,
NGO conferences.  However, the extent to which requests for assistance could be responded to
continued, in the course of the reporting period, to be constrained by personnel and financial
resources.This document has been prepared under the Secretariat's own
responsibility and without prejudice to the positions of Members
and to their rights and obligations under the WTO.IP/C/W/375
Page 2
Information and Advice Given to Members in Geneva
4. A large part of the work of Secretariat officials dealing with intellectual property matters has
been concerned with providing information in response to questions put to them by representatives of
Member Governments.  During the reporting period, focus has been on notification and reviewprocedures, the meaning of particular provisions of the TRIPS Agreement and matters under
discussion or negotiation in the TRIPS Council.  Matters have been raised with the Secretariat not
only by local delegations but also by visiting intellectual property officials and as a result of direct
contacts from officials in capitals by phone or in written form.  Often the issues raised relate to draft
legislation under consideration.  Advice and information has also been given to officials from
acceding countries and representatives of the private sector.
Seminars and Workshops for Developing and Acceding Countries
5. During the reporting period, the Secretariat prov ided speakers to 25 international, regional
and national seminars, workshops and other events outside Geneva devoted in whole or in large part
to the TRIPS Agreement or to a specific aspect of the Agreement and aimed to be of benefit to
officials of developing and acceding countries directly concerned with implementation of theAgreement as well as with the work programme and negotiations mandated by Ministers at Doha.
Participation of the Secretariat officials in certain events, including those organized by WIPO, was
financed by the organizers.  The Annex to this document contains a list of technical cooperation
missions outside Geneva in the TRIPS area.  In addition to missions outside Geneva, TRIPS staff
members also participated in several distance learning courses organized by the WTO Secretariat orco-organized with other intergovernmental organizations and/or universities.
6. In addition, the Secretariat organized special study programmes for individual countries or
groups of countries in Geneva, and provided speakers or briefings for a number of seminars and
training programmes organized in Geneva by others, notably WIPO.
Cooperation with WIPO and Other Intergovernmental Organizations
7. As indicated in this note and earlier reports submitted to the Council for TRIPS, cooperation
with WIPO has been a key feature of WTO Secretar iat technical cooperation in the TRIPS area.  This
has been based on the Cooperation Agreement between the two Organizations, Article 4 of which
deals with legal-technical assistance and technical cooperation.1  Since the Agreement was concluded,
there has been intensive cooperation between the two Organizations on technical cooperation matters,
which has been regularly reported to the Council.2
8. The WIPO-WTO Joint Initiative on Technical Cooperation for Least-Developed Countries,
launched in June 2001, is aimed at helping least-developed country Members of the WTO comply
with their obligations under the TRIPS Agreement and make best use of the intellectual property
system for their economic, social and cultural development.  It is also open to other least-developed
countries as well.  Under this Joint Initiative, the two Organizations, together with countriesrequesting assistance, and, where appropriate, donor countries, are endeavouring to ensure that
technical cooperation activities are efficiently planned and coordinated and to maximize the use of
                                                     
1 The Agreement Between the World Intellectual Property Organization and the World Trade
Organization came into effect on 1 January 1996.  Article 4 of the Agreement provides for the InternationalBureau of WIPO to make available to developing country WTO Members which are not Members of WIPO thesame legal-technical assistance relating to the TRIPS Agreement as it makes available to Member States of
WIPO which are developing countries.  The WTO Secretar iat is required to reciprocate.  The Agreement also
provides for the International Bureau and the WTO Secretariat to enhance cooperation in their legal-technicalassistance and technical cooperation activities relating to the TRIPS Agreement for developing countries, so asto maximize the usefulness of those activities and ensure their mutually supportive nature.
2  See documents IP/C/W/304, 201,156, 110, 79 and 36.IP/C/W/375
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available resources in carrying them out.  Pursuant to this Joint Initiative, the International Bureau of
WIPO and the WTO Secretariat organized in April 2002, in cooperation with the Government of the
Republic of Tanzania, a regional workshop for least-developed Sub-Saharan African countries and
Haiti.  A second regional seminar will be held in December 2002 for least-developed countries in Asia
and the Pacific region.  Requests for technical assistance by individual WTO Members are beingreceived by both secretariats, which are coordinating their efforts in view to respond to these requests
during the remaining part of this year and onwards.
9. The WTO Secretariat has also cooperated in the provision of technical cooperation in the area
of TRIPS with a number of other intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental
organizations, as can be seen from the Annex to this document.
Other Technical Cooperation and Training Activities
10. As noted above, the general technical cooperation and training activities of the WTO
Secretariat usually cover intellectual property.  These have increased considerably over the last year in
the light of the requirements of the Doha Declaration.  Secretariat officials working on intellectual
property matters have participated in these activities to the extent possible.  Such activities have
included seminars, workshops and training courses aimed at providing an overall appreciation of the
WTO provisions and mechanisms and other assistance;  they took place in Geneva and outsideGeneva.  For example, the regular and special WTO Trade Policy Courses include presentations on
the TRIPS Agreement, and the participants in the regular courses spend one day at WIPO, learning
about that Organization, its conventions and activities.  In addition, the training material and other
documentation prepared by the Secretariat contain information on the TRIPS Agreement.IP/C/W/375
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ANNEX
Technical Cooperation Missions in the TRIPS Area from 1 September 2001 to 13 September 2002
Date Place Mission
26-28 September 2001 Warsaw, Poland WHO Conference on "The TRIPS Agreement and
its Impact on Access and Prices of
Pharmaceuticals in Eastern Europe"
14-15 December 2001 Bangalore, India Conference on Intellectual Property Rights,
organized by the Indian Institute of Management
3-4 January 2002 Chennai, India Symposium on Biotechnology for Development28 January-1 February
2002Bangkok, Thailand Intellectual Property Training Programme,
organized by the Thai Department of Intellectual
Property (DIP), in cooperation with Japan
International Cooperation Agency (JICA), forCambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Viet Nam
28 January-1 February
2002Beijing, China WHO National Workshop on WTO Accession and
Impacts on the Health Sector
17-18 February 2002 Cairo, Egypt WIPO National Seminar on Pharmaceuticals and
Intellectual Property Rights
4-8 March 2002 Fiji WTO-FORSEC 2
nd Annual Short Trade Policy
Course for Pacific Islands Countries
18-22 March 2002 Hanoi and Ho Chi
Minh City, Viet NamSpecial Programme of  Cooperation Between
Vietnam and Switzerland in the Field of
Intellectual Property – Seminars on industrial
property
20 March 2002 Berne, Switzerland WTI (World Trade Institute) Accessions Training
Course (for Newly Independent States)
3-5 April 2002 New Delhi, India Seminar on Systems for the Protection and
Commercialization of Traditional Knowledge,
organized by the Government of India incooperation with UNCTAD
10-12 April 2002 El Salvador ITC South- South Trade Promotion Programme –
Central America:  Pilot Programme for Intra-
Regional Trade Expansion  -  "LatinPharma 2002"
16 April 2002 Rabat, Morocco Trade Policy CourseIP/C/W/375
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Date Place Mission
22-25 April 2002 Dar es Salaam,
TanzaniaWIPO-WTO Regional Workshop on
Implementation of the Agreement on
Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual PropertyRights (TRIPS Agreement), organized in
cooperation with the Government of Tanzania
25 April 2002 Amman, Jordan WTLA (World Trade Law Association) Regional
Conference
28-30 April 2002 Doha, Qatar WIPO/WTO  Arab Regional Meeting on
Intellectual Property and the Results of the Doha
Ministerial Conference, organized in cooperation
with the Ministry of Economy and Commerce of
Qatar
8-10 May 2002 Beijing, China EU-China Intellectual Property Programme
Meeting
20-22 May 2002 Istanbul, Turkey IDB (Islamic Development Bank) Trade Policy
Courses for the Organization of IslamicConference (OIC)
10-11 June Algiers, Algeria National Seminar on the Agreement on
Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property
Rights (TRIPS Agreement), organized by WIPO incooperation with the Algerian National Institute of
Industrial Property (INAPI) and the National
Office of Copyright and Related Rights
(O.N.D.A.)
24 June 2002 Bogotá, Colombia National Seminar on Intellectual Property
26-27 June 2002 Addis Ababa,
EthiopiaFirst WTO-ECA (United Nations Economic
Commission for Africa) – ADB (African
Development Bank) Trade Policy Course for
African Countries
4-5 July 2002 Casablanca, Morocco WIPO National Seminar on the Trade-Related
Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS
Agreement) and the Patent Protection of
Pharmaceutical Products
8-12 July 2002 Abuja, Nigeria National Training Course
8-12 July 2002 Windhoek, Namibia WTO Regional Seminar on Trade and
Environment for English-speaking Countries in
AfricaIP/C/W/375
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Date Place Mission
9-11 September 2002 Nairobi, Kenya WTO Trade Policy Course in Nairobi
11-13 September 2002 Casablanca, Morocco WTO Trade Policy Course in Casablanca
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