WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONIP/C/29
2 July 2003
(03-3528)
Council for Trade-Related Aspects
of Intellectual Property Rights
WORK PROGRAMME ON ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
Report to the General Council
1. At the Doha Ministerial Conference in November 2001, Ministers took note of the work
which had been done in the General Council and other relevant bodies since the Ministerial
Declaration of 20 May 1998 and agree to continue the Work Programme on Electronic Commerce.
They instructed the General Council to consider the most appropriate institutional arrangements forhandling the Work Programme, and to report on further progress to the Fifth Session of the
Ministerial Conference.
1  Pursuant to this, the General Council agreed, at its meeting on
15 October 2002, to maintain, for the duration of the work until the Fifth Ministerial Conference, the
current institutional arrangements for handling the Work Programme on Electronic Commerce,
namely that the Councils for Trade in Services, Trade in Goods and TRIPS, and the Committee onTrade and Development would examine and report on aspects of electronic commerce relevant to
their respective areas of competence.
2  The purpose of this document is to report on the further
progress in the Council for TRIPS.
2. It is recalled that the TRIPS Council submitted its first Progress Report to the General
Council on 30 July 1999 (IP/C/18), and a second Progress Report to the General Council was
provided by the Chairman on his own responsibility on 4 December 2000.  This report covers the
period since that date.
3. The Council continued its work on intellectual property issues arising in connection with
electronic commerce.  The records of the discussions can be found in the minutes of the following
meetings:  2-5 April 2001 (paragraphs 212-218 of IP/C/M/30), 18-22 June 2001 (paragraphs 162-169
of IP/C/M/32), 19-20 September 2001 (paragraphs 138-147 of IP/C/M/33), 5-7 March 2002
(paragraphs 282-284 of IP/C/M/35), 25-27 June 2002 (paragraphs 255-256 of IP/C/M/36/Add.1), and17-19 September 2002 (paragraphs 289-290 of IP/C/M/37/Add.1), 25-27 and 29 November and
20 December 2002 (paragraph 287 of IP/C/M/38), and 18-19 February 2003 (paragraphs 190-192 of
IP/C/M/39), and 4-5 June 2003 (IP/C/M/40 to be circulated).
4. Communications from Cuba (IP/C/W/264) and Switzerland (IP/C/W/286) were presented to
the Council's meeting in June 2001.  At its meeting in June 2003, the Council took note of an updateto the Secretariat's factual background note on intellectual property and electronic commerce
(IP/C/W/128/Add.1).
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1 Paragraph 34 of the Ministerial Declaration, adopted on 14 November 2001 (WT/MIN(01)/DEC/1).
2 Paragraphs 49-51 of document WT/GC/M/76.