Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 7 • Number 7 • 27th February 2003
TRIPs Council Focuses On Tech Transfer And Geographical Indications
The Council for Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs), at its regular session on 18-20 February, adopted a decision on technical transfer to least-developed countries, thereby fulfilling one of the mandates adopted at the Doha Ministerial Conference. Earlier in the meeting, Members had failed to finalise negotiations on TRIPs and health and no new date has been set for continuing the discussions (see BRIDGES Weekly, 19 February 2003).
During the special (negotiating) session of the TRIPs Council on 21 February, Members continued negotiations on a multilateral system for geographical indications (GIs) for wines and spirits based on a compilation of positions put forward by the Secretariat. Members remained divided over the next steps in the negotiations, in particular on the need for and timing of a potential Chair’s first draft agreement.
Council adopts tech transfer decision
The Council adopted a decision on "Implementation of Article 66.2 of the TRIPs Agreement" (IP/C/28), thereby giving effect to one of the Doha mandates in the Decision on Implementation-related Issues and Concerns, which calls on countries to put in place a mechanism for ensuring the monitoring and full implementation of Art 66.2. This Article instructs developed country Members to "provide incentives to enterprises and institutions in their territories for the purpose of promoting and encouraging technology transfer" to LDCs.
Specifically, the decision requires developed country Members to submit annual reports on actions taken or planned in pursuance of their commitments under Article 66.2. The reports will provide an overview of the incentive regime put in place, the type of incentives and government agency or entity making it available, eligible enterprises and other institutions, and any information available on the functioning in practice of these incentives. The TRIPs Council will review the reports at its last meeting of each year, providing an opportunity for Members to ask questions and discuss the effectiveness of the incentives.
The TRIPs Council elected Ambassador Vanu Gopala Menon of Singapore as the new Chair to replace Ambassador Eduardo Perez Motta (Mexico). The next regular Council meeting will be held on 3-5 June.
Members split over way forward on GIs
At the special session, the Secretariat submitted its compilation of various positions on GIs, which formed the basis of subsequent discussions (TN/IP/W/7). Positions remained unchanged. The EC, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Sri Lanka and others are advocating that Members should be required to protect the GIs registered in the multilateral system and that "voluntary" registration would allow countries to choose whether to register a particular GI. In contrast, Australia, Canada, Japan, the US and others envisage the system to function mainly as a database and that the protection of registered terms should be "voluntary".
Countries were divided along the same lines over how to move forward in the debate. The EC and supporters noted that the five hours of discussions in the session had produced "nothing new", calling on the Chair of the special session, Ambassador Eui Yong Chung of Korea, to prepare and circulate a first draft agreement by the first half of March. Australia et al urged caution, arguing that the positions were still far apart and that it was too "early" in the process to begin discussing a first draft.
Members are mandated to finalise the negotiations on a multilateral system by the next WTO Ministerial Conference in September. The Chair said that he would aim to circulate a first draft "well before" the next special session on 24-25 April.
ICTSD reporting.