Notes on Article 9
114. Article 9 provides that the Union, established under Article 1, shall have an Assembly consisting of the Contracting Parties, which would constitute the forum in which the Contracting Parties could meet to discuss matters relating to the maintenance and development of the Union and the application and operation of the Treaty.
115. Article 9 contains, following the suggestion made during the fourth session of the Committee of Experts, more detailed provisions than those that were contained in its counterpart in previous versions of the draft Treaty. In addition, separate Articles have now been inserted to deal with matters relating to the International Bureau (Article 10) and the amendment of certain provisions of the Treaty by the Assembly (Article 11), both of which matters were formerly dealt with in the counterpart to Article 9 in previous versions of the draft Treaty.
116. No separate provision has, however, been made in respect of finances, and it is not proposed that Contracting Parties should pay contributions to the International Bureau of WIPO. The provisions of the Treaty are similar, in this respect, to those of the Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure, which also establishes a Union with an Assembly without financial provisions. Certain functions of the Assembly and the International Bureau envisaged in the ensuing Articles, however, might, if implemented, equire financing. These functions have been indicated in appropriate places in the notes on the ensuing Articles.
117. Ad paragraph (1): The provisions of this paragraph, which deal with the composition of the Assembly, seem to be self-explanatory. Subparagraph (1)(d) has been inserted, as suggested during the fourth session of the Committee of Experts, to provide the facility for the Assembly to ask WIPO to grant financial assistance to facilitate the participation of delegations of Contracting Parties that are developing countries.
118. Ad paragraph (2): The tasks specified in paragraph (2) for the Assembly are threefold: to deal with matters concerning the maintenance and development of the Union and the application and operation of the Treaty; to decide the convocation of revision conferences and to give necessary instructions to the Director General in this regard; and, if a consultation and dispute-settlement mechanism similar to the one provided as an alternative in Article 13bis were adopted, to establish the details of the procedures of such a mechanism, including the financing of such procedures.