./.RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONIP/C/W/121
13 January 1999
(99-0088)
Council for Trade-Related Aspects
of Intellectual Property RightsOriginal:  Spanish
IMPLEMENTATION OF ARTICLES 70.8 AND 70.9
The Secretariat has received the following communication, dated 25 November 1998, from
the delegation of Uruguay, concerning Uruguay's replies to the questions posed by the United States
and distributed in document IP/C/W/113.
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Question 1
In addition to the information provided in  your notification concerning the filing of
patent applications directed to pharmaceutical or agricultural chemical product inventions,please:
(a) Identify the basis in your law that governs the handling of patent applications by
the responsible Government agency in  situations where the application is
directed to subject-matter that is not eligible to be patented.
Reply
With regard to the specific enactment governing the filing of patent applications for chemical,
pharmaceutical or agricultural chemical products, it should be noted that:
(a) This is a legal rule which requires th e Industrial Property Office to comply with
TRIPS Article 70.8, with the stipulation that, as from 1 January 1995, patent
applications are made subject to prior payment of the relevant fees, and that they are
received under TRIPS Article 70.8;
(b) We consider that the rule is absolute ly clear, maintaining the novelty of such
applications by means of a legal fiction and applying to them the criteria for
patentability established in the TRIPS Agreement;
(c) Uruguay receives patent applications corresponding to the situation described,
pending the entry into force of patenting  for such products.
(b) confirm that the measures specified in  your notification will ensure that any
patent application directed to pharmaceutical or agricultural chemical product
inventions that was filed on or after 1 January 1995, can serve as the basis for a
grant of a patent with a term that expires no earlier than 20 years from the dateof its filing, once your Government extends patent protection to inventions
consistent with the scope of Article 27 of the TRIPS Agreement.IP/C/W/121
Page 2
Reply
It should be pointed out that Law 16,671 incorporates the TRIPS Agreement into the national
legal system and entrusts the task of its regulation to the Executive.
The decisions of 30 December 1994 and 28 June 1995 were adopted within this regulatory
framework.
Questions 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6
Relating to exclusive marketing rights for the products referred to in Articles 70.8
and 70.9 of the TRIPS Agreement.
Inasmuch as the TRIPS Agreement does not specify the content and scope of exclusive
marketing rights, we are analysing this new situation for which there is as yet no clear background
information at international level.
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