WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONIP/C/W/108/Add.1
24 July 1998
(98-2933)
Council for Trade-Related Aspects
of Intellectual Property RightsOriginal:  English
TECHNICAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES:  INFORMATION FROM
OTHER INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS
Addendum
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
At its meeting of 12 May 1998, the Council for TRIPS agreed to invite intergovernmental
organizations observers to the Council to update the information on their technical and financial
cooperation activities relevant to the implementation of the TRIPS Agreement.
The present document reproduces the information which has been received from the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Deve lopment by means of a communication, dated
13 July 1998.
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You will recall that we provided some information to your predecessor, Ambassador Guarda,
in August 1997, concerning the launching by the OECD's Trade Committee Working Party of a fact-
finding study on intellectual property practices of OECD Member countries in the field of
biotechnology.  This study, based on a questionnaire distributed to national experts, covered patent
examination practices related to biotechnology inventions; patent enforcement issues related to
biotechnology inventions; and plant variety protection issues relevant to plant inventions.
On the basis of the replies by Member countries, the OECD Secretariat delivered a first
factual report, which was discussed by the OECD Working Party on 15 May 1998.  Delegates
acknowledged the importance of the information and invited Member countries that had not already
done so to forward their replies to the Secretariat,  with a view to completing the report by this
autumn.  The Secretariat is currently in the process of preparing a final report on Intellectual PropertyPractices in the field of Biotechnology, which will  include 22 OECD Member countries.  The possible
derestriction of this report will be discussed, as well as the usefulness of expanding the geographic
coverage at a later stage.
We have also informed your predecessor about the October 1996 OECD publication,
"Intellectual Property, Technology Transfer and Ge netic Resources:  An OECD Survey of Current
Practices and Policies".  Responding to the demand by our Member countries for effective diffusion
of this report, we have continued to publicise, including at the Fourth Conference of the Parties to the
Convention on Biological Diversity (Bratislava, 4-15 May 1998), and have made the full text
available for free downloading from our website, <http://www.oecd.org/dsti/biotech>.
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