WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONIP/C/14
5 October 1998
(98-3839)
Council for Trade-Related Aspects
of Intellectual Property Rights
CALCULATION OF RENEWABLE PERIODS OF TEN YEARS UNDER THE
PROVISIONS OF THE APPENDIX TO THE BERNE CONVENTION AS
INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE INTO THE TRIPS AGREEMENT
At its meeting of 16 July 1998, the Council t ook note of the following statement by its
Chairperson, in the light of informal consultations held on the matter.
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The provisions of Article I(2) of the Appendix as incorporated into the TRIPS Agreement can
be understood so that, for the purposes of the TRIPS Agreement, the relevant periods are calculated
by reference to the same date, i.e. 10 October 1974, as for the purposes of the Berne Convention.
This would mean that renewable periods of ten years would be the same for the purposes of bothAgreements, and that, also under the TRIPS Agreement, the period of ten years currently running
would expire on 10 October 2004.
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