 WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/IP/11 
6 December 2004 
 (04-5341) 
Council for Trade-Related Aspects  
of Intellectual Property Rights Special Session  
 
 
  
SPECIAL SESSION OF THE COUNCIL FOR TRIPS 
 
Report by the Chairman, Ambassador Manzoor Ahmad,
 
to the Trade Negotiations Committee  
  1. This report is submitted on the Ch airman's own responsibility.   
I. STATUS OF WORK 
2. Since the General Council's Decision of 1 A ugust 2004, the Special Session has held two 
meetings, on 23 September and on 30 November 2004.   (For the Chair's report on the 23 September 
meeting to the TNC, see paragraph 22 of TN/C/M/14.)   
3. At the meeting of 30 November and as suggested by the Chair at the 23 September 2004 
meeting of the Special Session, delegations addr essed various issues regarding the establishment of a 
multilateral system of notification and registration of  geographical indications for wines and spirits, in 
particular questions relating to the notification phase of the system, and the three sets of issues that 
were discussed at the September meeting:  legal effects and participation; administrative and other 
burdens;  and a number of issues of technical or procedural nature relating to the operation of a 
notification and registration system.  Delegations ha d a useful discussion of certain technical aspects, 
in particular the content and nature of notifications  and the role of the administering body.  It was 
agreed that the Secretariat will update a bac kground note on the WTO Central Registry of 
Notifications (CRN) and that a Secretariat CRN admi nistrator would be invited to attend the next 
session to respond to questions.   
II. OUTSTANDING ISSUES 
4. A range of issues require further work, including, but not limited to, resolving the key issues 
of the legal effects of registrations and participation in the system. 
III.  FUTURE WORK 
5. With regard to meetings in 2005, it was agreed  that the Special Session would hold meetings 
back to back with the meetings of the regular sessi on of the TRIPS Council, that is on 11 March, in 
the weeks starting 13 June and 24 October, and th at an additional meeting would be held on 
16 September 2005.  
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