COMMUNICATION RELATED TO HAVING TECHNICAL, INFORMAL AND IN-DEPTH DISCUSSIONS AT THE COUNCIL FOR TRIPS ON VARIOUS ISSUES

COMMUNICATION FROM BRAZIL, COLOMBIA, INDIA AND SOUTH AFRICA

1.  The Council for TRIPS is the WTO body responsible for administering and monitoring the operation of, and Members' compliance with, the TRIPS Agreement as per Article 68 of the TRIPS Agreement. It also provides Members the opportunity to consult on trade-related IP matters and is mandated to consult and cooperate with other bodies, in particular the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). There are various other IGOs (international intergovernmental organizations) (List available at _WT/L/161) which are observers in the Council for TRIPS such as World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), World Health Organization (WHO) (on ad hoc basis) who can also help the Members in detailed technical discussion on cross-cutting issues.

2.  In this context, Members in the last few formal Council for TRIPS meetings submitted various proposals for discussion including "Reviving discussions on the relationship between the TRIPS Agreement and Convention on Biological Diversity" circulated by Brazil, India and Peru (_IP/C/W/719), "After-life of Patents" (_IP/C/W/720) & "Trade related figures of Intellectual Property at the WTO: The Case of IP Royalties at the global level” circulated by Colombia, and "Intellectual property and innovation : technology transfer case studies" circulated by Australia; Canada; the European Union; Israel; Japan; Korea, Republic of; New Zealand; Singapore; Switzerland the United States of America (_IP/C/W/717). Discussions were also being held on various standing agenda items where there have been developments outside the WTO such as agenda item of "IP, COVID-19 and Pandemic Preparedness".

3.  During the discussion at the June 2025 Council for TRIPS meeting, several delegations raised that the Council may request presentations from WIPO, WHO, ERSD Division of WTO and other relevant international organizations to discuss the issues which have come up and get the latest factual updates and information and thus have technical discussions. The Chair acknowledged the suggestions and held informal consultations to develop consensus on holding informal/informative sessions on certain topics. However, the consensus could not be achieved, neither on the topics for holding the informal sessions, nor on inviting relevant organizations to present at the Council meeting, so far.

4.  In this context, we would like to submit certain questions on account of which, it is felt, the Council for TRIPS delegates would benefit by having presentations and information from concerned international organizations in formal or informal sessions, however informal setting would help in having a candid and frank exchange of views:

·_              In the context of the WIPO Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge (GRATK treaty) adopted by WIPO in May 2024, can WIPO provide information and presentation on key provisions of the treaty, its linkage with the TRIPS Agreement, if any? How the adoption of the treaty would be helpful in addressing trade of bio-piracy goods? What is the status of future negotiations in the WIPO Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC) in the context of protection of traditional knowledge and folkore and the way ahead? What is the status of the discussions on the inclusion of the new disclosure requirement in the WIPO Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)?

·_              In the context of the database for patents whose patent term has expired, can WIPO provide a presentation and information about its tool called "PATENTSCOPE"? Does it include information about patents which have expired? How user-friendly it is and whether it can be accessed by the public and how it can be searched for a specific sector and technology? Does it support various languages? What are the key features and limitations it has currently? Is there any internal plan to improve it further? Does WIPO also have compilation of any best practices at national level for expired patent information database?

·_              Can WHO provide a presentation and information about the recently concluded Pandemic Agreement? What are the linkages it has with respect to the TRIPS Agreement and IP issues? What are the provisions for the technology transfer in the treaty? How does it support the access to and trade of IP protected essential medical products in case of a future pandemic? What is the future work and areas which are yet to be negotiated, if any, and would there be elements related to IP & trade in it as well?

·_              Can the Trade in Services & Investment Division or ERS (Economic, Research and Statistics) Division of the WTO give a presentation about trends in the last 30 years regarding IP royalty payments captured as part of services trade data, in terms of overall trends, trends for developed and developing Members, trends across sectors and technological areas? How best this data captures the trade-related data in the context of IPR trade flow? What are the limitations of this data? Has there been any study on improving the data capture for IP trade data?

·_              Could the World Bank provide information or presentation on data captured about "Charges for the use of intellectual property" under Balance of Payments? What are the limitations and definitions of the data captured under this field and how the data is captured? Are the services data and the BoP data consistent in their general scope and direction?

5.  The Council for TRIPS can provide a useful format to discuss in detail about the above issues for the whole WTO membership, as these issues are being discussed in the Council's agenda. Informal, technical discussions and thematic sessions are regular features and tools being used very effectively in various other bodies of the WTO providing important platforms to deliberate and discuss in a candid and informal format and thus helping in developing common understanding and sometimes useful outcomes for the whole membership, through a Member-driven process. Therefore, it is believed that in the Council for TRIPS also the membership can utilize these tools and knowledge of IGOs & observers on various issues of interest.

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