• IP/N/1/-/C/*    Copyright and Related Rights
• IP/N/1/-/T/*    Trademarks
• IP/N/1/-/G/*    Geographical Indications
• IP/N/1/-/D/*    Industrial Designs
• IP/N/1/-/P/*    Patents (Including Plant Variety Protection)
• IP/N/1/-/L/*    Layout-Designs (Topographies) of Integrated Circuits
• IP/N/1/-/U/*    Undisclosed Information
• IP/N/1/-/I/*    Industrial Property (General)
• IP/N/1/-/E/*    Enforcement
• IP/N/1/-/O/*    Other

The texts of the laws and regulations referred to in these documents are not contained in the WTO’s Documents Online database, since they have not generally been put into electronic form by the WTO Secretariat. However, as provided in Article 2(4) of the Agreement between the World Intellectual Property Organization and the World Trade Organization, the WTO Secretariat transmits to the International Bureau of WIPO a copy of the laws and regulations notified to the WTO Secretariat by WTO Members under Article 63.2 of the TRIPS Agreement in the language or languages and in the form or forms in which they were received, and the International Bureau places such copies in its paper collection. The World Intellectual Property Organization makes the laws and regulations contained in its collection available to the public in various ways, including by publishing them on-line in its Collection of Laws for Electronic Access (CLEA).

Given the difficulty of examining legislation relevant to many of the enforcement obligations in the TRIPS Agreement, Members have undertaken, in addition to notifying legislative texts, to provide information on how they are meeting these obligations by responding to a checklist of questions (document IP/C/5). Responses to these questions are circulated in the IP/N/6- series of documents.
   
  

Notifications under Articles 1.3 and 3.1 Back to top

Articles 1.3 and 3.1 of the TRIPS Agreement allow Members to avail themselves of certain options in regard to the definition of beneficiary persons and national treatment, provided that notifications are made to the Council for TRIPS. Notifications made under Articles 1.3 and 3.1 are circulated in the IP/N/2/* series of documents. Further background information on these notification possibilities can be found in document IP/C/W/5.
   
  

Notifications under Article 4(d) Back to top

Article 4 of the Agreement on the most-favoured-nation treatment provides that, with regard to the protection of intellectual property, any advantage, favour, privilege or immunity granted by a Member to the nationals of any other country shall be accorded immediately and unconditionally to the nationals of all other Members. There are certain exceptions to this obligation. According to sub paragraph (d) of that Article, exempted from this obligation are any advantage, favour, privilege or immunity accorded by a Member deriving from international agreements related to the protection of intellectual property which entered into force prior to the entry into force of the WTO Agreement, provided that such agreements are notified to the Council for TRIPS and do not constitute an arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination against nationals of other Members. Notifications made under Article 4(d) are circulated in the IP/N/4/* series of documents.
   
  

Notifications under Article 69 Back to top

Article 69 of the Agreement requires Members to establish and notify contact points in their administrations for the purposes of cooperation with each other aimed at the elimination of trade in infringing goods. The information on such contact points is circulated in document IP/N/3, and addenda, corrigenda and periodic revisions.
 
   

Notifications under other provisions of the Agreement Back to top

A number of notification provisions of the Berne and the Rome Conventions are incorporated by reference into the TRIPS Agreement but without being explicitly referred to in it. At its meeting in February 1996, the Council invited each Member wishing to make such notifications to make them to the Council for TRIPS, even if the Member in question had already made a notification under the Berne or the Rome Convention in regard to the same issue. Further background information on these notification possibilities can be found in document IP/C/W/15. Notifications of this kind are circulated in the IP/N/5/* series of documents.