HC Deb 13 December 2000 vol 359 cc133-4W
Mr. Baker

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what discussions his officials have had with the TRIPS Council regarding the compliance of the United Kingdom's intellectual property laws with Article 2 of the TRIPS Agreement relating to the obligation of the United Kingdom to comply with Article 10 of the Paris Convention. [142124]

Dr. Howells

Having notified its main dedicated intellectual property laws and regulations to the WTO, the United Kingdom participated in reviews of developed country WTO Members' TRIPS implementing legislation carried out by the TRIPS Council throughout 1996 and 997. Records of introductory statements made by the United Kingdom delegation, questions put to the United Kingdom delegation and the responses given were published by the WTO in four documents with references IP/Q/GBR/1, IP/Q2/GBR/1, IP/Q3/GBR/1 and IP/Q4/GBR/1. All of these documents are available to the public on the WTO website, www.wto.org. None of these discussions touched explicitly on the question of Article 10 of the Paris Convention.