51998PC0249

Proposal for a Council Decision on the approval, on behalf of the European Community, of the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (98/C 165/08) COM(1998) 249 final - 98/0141(AVC)

(Submitted by the Commission on 27 April 1998)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Articles 57(2), 66 and 100a thereof, taken in conjunction with the first sentence of Article 228(2) and the second subparagraph of Article 228(3);

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission;

Having regard to the assent of the European Parliament;

Having regard to the Copyright Treaty and the Performances and Phonograms Treaty adopted in Geneva on 20 December 1996 under the auspices of the World Intellectual Property Organisation;

Whereas, as to substance, these Treaties, together with the rules recently proposed by the Commission in its proposal for a Directive on copyright and related rights in the Information Society, will help to ensure a balanced level of protection for works, while allowing the public access to material available via networks;

Whereas, in accordance with the Court of Justice case-law relating to the European Agreement concerning the work of crews of vehicles engaged in international road transport (AETR), whenever the Community adopts provisions establishing common rules in one form or another in order to implement a common policy provided for by the Treaty, the Member States no longer have the right, either individually or collectively, to enter into obligations with third countries that affect those rules; whereas, as and when such common rules are established, the Community alone is in a position to undertake and perform, with effect for the entire field of application of the Community legal order, commitments entered into with third countries;

Whereas the subject-matter of the Treaties falls to a large extent within the scope of existing Community directives in this field;

Whereas it follows that the approval of the above-mentioned Treaties is a matter for both the Community and its Member States;

Whereas the Treaties should therefore be approved on behalf of the European Community;

Having already signed the said Treaties, subject to ratification, on behalf of the European Community,

HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS:

Article 1

1. The WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) is hereby approved on behalf of the European Community.

2. The WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT) is hereby approved on behalf of the European Community.

3. The texts of the Treaties are attached to this Decision.

Article 2

The President of the Council is hereby authorised to deposit the instruments of ratification with the Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organisation as of the date on which the Council adopts the necessary measures to adapt and incorporate the existing Community provisions.

Article 3

1. The Commission is hereby authorised to represent the European Community at the meetings of the Assemblies referred to in the Treaties and to negotiate on its behalf on issues which fall within the remit of the Assemblies.

2. The position of the European Community shall be determined by the Commission and the Member States within the competent Council working party or at ad hoc meetings held in the context of work under the auspices of the World Intellectual Property Organisation.

ANNEX

WIPO COPYRIGHT TREATY

(WCT)

Geneva (1996)

PREAMBLE

THE CONTRACTING PARTIES,

DESIRING to develop and maintain the protection of the rights of authors in their literary and artistic works in a manner as effective and uniform as possible,

RECOGNISING the need to introduce new international rules and clarify the interpretation of certain existing rules in order to provide adequate solutions to the questions raised by new economic, social, cultural and technological developments,

RECOGNISING the profound impact of the development and convergence of information and communication technologies on the creation and use of literary and artistic works,

EMPHASISING the outstanding significance of copyright protection as an incentive for literary and artistic creation,

RECOGNISING the need to maintain a balance between the rights of authors and the larger public interest, particularly education, research and access to information, as reflected in the Berne Convention,

HAVE AGREED AS FOLLOWS:

Article 1

Relation to the Berne Convention

1. This Treaty is a special agreement within the meaning of Article 20 of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, as regards Contracting Parties that are countries of the Union established by that Convention. This Treaty shall not have any connection with treaties other than the Berne Convention, nor shall it prejudice any rights and obligations under any other treaties.

2. Nothing in this Treaty shall derogate from existing obligations that Contracting Parties have to each other under the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.

3. Hereinafter, 'Berne Convention` shall refer to the Paris Act of 24 July 1971, of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.

4. Contracting Parties shall comply with Articles 1 to 21 and the Appendix of the Berne Convention.

Article 2

Scope of copyright protection

Copyright protection extends to expressions and not to ideas, procedures, methods of operation or mathematical concepts as such.

Article 3

Application of Articles 2 to 6 of the Berne Convention

Contracting Parties shall apply mutatis mutandis the provisions of Articles 2 to 6 of the Berne Convention in respect of the protection provided for in this Treaty.

Article 4

Computer programmes

Computer programmes are protected as literary works within the meaning of Article 2 of the Berne Convention. Such protection applies to computer programmes, whatever may be the mode or form of their expression.

Article 5

Compilations of data (databases)

Compilations of data or other material, in any form, which by reason of the selection or arrangement of their contents constitute intellectual creations, are protected as such. This protection does not extend to the data or the material itself and is without prejudice to any copyright subsisting in the data or material contained in the compilation.

Article 6

Right of distribution

1. Authors of literary and artistic works shall enjoy the exclusive right of authorising the making available to the public of the original and copies of their works through sale or other transfer of ownership.

2. Nothing in this Treaty shall affect the freedom of Contracting Parties to determine the conditions, if any, under which the exhaustion of the right in paragraph 1 applies after the first sale or other transfer of ownership of the original or a copy of the work with the authorisation of the author.

Article 7

Right of rental

1. Authors of

(i) computer programmes,

(ii) cinematographic works and

(iii) works embodied in phonograms, as determined in the national law of Contracting Parties,

shall enjoy the exclusive right of authorising commercial rental to the public of the originals or copies of their works.

2. Paragraph 1 shall not apply

(i) in the case of computer programmes, where the programme itself is not the essential object of the rental and

(ii) in the case of cinematographic works, unless such commercial rental has led to widespread copying of such works materially impairing the exclusive right of reproduction.

3. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph 1, a Contracting Party that, on 15 April 1994, had and continues to have in force a system of equitable remuneration of authors for the rental of copies of their works embodied in phonograms may maintain that system provided that the commercial rental of works embodied in phonograms is not giving rise to the material impairment of the exclusive right of reproduction of authors.

Article 8

Right of communication to the public

Without prejudice to the provisions of Articles 11(1)(ii), 11bis(1)(i) and (ii), 11ter(1)(ii), 14(1)(ii) and 14 bis(1) of the Berne Convention, authors of literary and artistic works shall enjoy the exclusive right of authorising any communication to the public of their works, by wire or wireless means, including the making available to the public of their works in such a way that members of the public may access these works from a place and at a time individually chosen by them.

Article 9

Duration of the protection of photographic works

In respect of photographic works, the Contracting Parties shall not apply the provisions of Article 7(4) of the Berne Convention.

Article 10

Limitations and exceptions

1. Contracting Parties may, in their national legislation, provide for limitations of or exceptions to the rights granted to authors of literary and artistic works under this Treaty in certain special cases that do not conflict with a normal exploitation of the work and do not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the author.

2. Contracting Parties shall, when applying the Berne Convention, confine any limitations of or exceptions to rights provided for therein to certain special cases that do not conflict with a normal exploitation of the work and do not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the author.

Article 11

Obligations concerning technological measures

Contracting Parties shall provide adequate legal protection and effective legal remedies against the circumvention of effective technological measures that are used by authors in connection with the exercise of their rights under this Treaty of the Berne Convention and that restrict acts, in respect of their works, which are not authorised by the authors concerned or permitted by law.

Article 12

Obligations concerning rights management information

1. Contracting Parties shall provide adequate and effective legal remedies against any person knowingly performing any of the following acts knowing, or with respect to civil remedies having reasonable grounds to know, that it will induce, enable, facilitate or conceal an infringement of any right covered by this Treaty or the Berne Convention:

(i) to remove or alter any electronic rights management information without authority;

(ii) to distribute, import for distribution, broadcast or communicate to the public, without authority, works or copies of works knowing that electronic rights management information has been removed or altered without authority.

2. As used in this Article, 'rights management information` means information which identifies the work, the author of the work, the owner of any right in the work, or information about the terms and conditions of use of the work, and any numbers or codes that represent such information, when any of these items of information is attached to a copy of a work or appears in connection with the communication of a work to the public.

Article 13

Application in time

Contracting Parties shall apply the provisions of Article 18 of the Berne Convention to all protection provided for in this Treaty.

Article 14

Provisions and enforcement of rights

1. Contracting Parties undertake to adopt, in accordance with their legal systems, the measures to ensure the application of this Treaty.

2. Contracting Parties shall ensure that enforcement procedures are available under their law so as to permit effective action against any act of infringement of rights covered by this Treaty, including expeditious remedies to prevent infringements and remedies which constitute a deterrent to further infringements.

Article 15

Assembly

1. (a) The Contracting Parties shall have an Assembly.

(b) Each Contracting Party shall be represented by one delegate who may be assisted by alternate delegates, advisors and experts.

(c) The expenses of each delegation shall be borne by the Contracting Party that has appointed the delegation. The Assembly may ask the World Intellectual Property Organisation (hereinafter referred to as 'WIPO`) to grant financial assistance to facilitate the participation of delegations of Contracting Parties that are regarded as developing countries in conformity with the established practice of the General Assembly of the United Nations or that are countries in transition to a market economy.

2. (a) The Assembly shall deal with matters concerning the maintenance and development of this Treaty and the application and operation of this Treaty.

(b) The Assembly shall perform the function allocated to it under Article 17(2) in respect of the admission of certain intergovernmental organisations to become party to this Treaty.

(c) The Assembly shall decide the convocation of any diplomatic conference for the revision of this Treaty and give the necessary instructions to the Director General of WIPO for the preparation of such diplomatic conference.

3. (a) Each Contracting Party that is a State shall have one vote and shall vote only in its own name.

(b) Any Contracting Party that is an intergovernmental organisation may participate in the vote, in place of its Member States, with a number of votes equal to the number of its Member States which are party to this Treaty. No such intergovernmental organisation shall participate in the vote if any one of its Member States exercises its right to vote and vice versa.

4. The Assembly shall meet in ordinary session once every two years upon convocation by the Director General of WIPO.

5. The Assembly shall establish its own rules of procedure, including the convocation of extraordinary sessions, the requirements of a quorum and, subject to the provisions of this Treaty, the required majority for various kinds of decisions.

Article 16

International Bureau

The International Bureau of WIPO shall perform the administrative tasks concerning the Treaty.

Article 17

Eligibility for becoming party to the Treaty

1. Any Member State of WIPO may become party to this Treaty.

2. The Assembly may decide to admit any intergovernmental organisation to become party to this Treaty which declares that it is competent in respect of, and has its own legislation binding on all its Member States on, matters covered by this Treaty and that it has been duly authorised, in accordance with its internal procedures, to become party to this Treaty.

3. The European Community, having made the declaration referred to in the preceding paragraph in the Diplomatic Conference that has adopted this Treaty, may become party to this Treaty.

Article 18

Rights and obligations under the Treaty

Subject to any specific provisions to the contrary in this Treaty, each Contracting Party shall enjoy all of the rights and assume all of the obligations under this Treaty.

Article 19

Signature of the Treaty

This Treaty shall be open for signature until 31 December 1997, by any Member State of WIPO and by the European Community.

Article 20

Entry into force of the Treaty

This Treaty shall enter into force three months after 30 instruments of ratification or accession by States have been deposited with the Director General of WIPO.

Article 21

Effective date of becoming party to the Treaty

This Treaty shall bind:

(i) the 30 States referred to in Article 20, from the date on which this Treaty has entered into force;

(ii) each other State, from the expiration of three months from the date on which the State has deposited its instrument with the Director General of WIPO;

(iii) the European Community, from the expiration of three months after the deposit of its instrument of ratification or accession if such instrument has been deposited after the entry into force of this Treaty according to Article 20, or, three months after the entry into force of this Treaty if such instrument has been deposited before the entry into force of this Treaty;

(iv) any other intergovernmental organisation that is admitted to become party to this Treaty, from the expiration of three months after the deposit of its instrument of accession.

Article 22

No reservations to the Treaty

No reservation to this Treaty shall be admitted.

Article 23

Denunciation of the Treaty

This Treaty may be denounced by any Contracting Party by notification addressed to the Director General of WIPO. Any denunciation shall take effect one year from the date on which the Director General of WIPO received the notification.

Article 24

Languages of the Treaty

1. This Treaty is signed in a single original in the English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish languages, the versions in all these languages being equally authentic.

2. An official text in any language other than those referred to in paragraph 1 shall be established by the Director General of WIPO on the request of an interested party, after consultation with all the interested parties. For the purposes of this paragraph, 'interested party` means any Member State of WIPO whose official language, or one of whose official languages, is involved and the European Community, and any other intergovernmental organisation that may become party to this Treaty, if one of its official languages is involved.

Article 25

Depositary

The Director General of WIPO is the depositary of this Treaty.

WIPO PERFORMANCES AND PHONOGRAMS TREATY

(WPPT)

Geneva (1996)

PREAMBLE

THE CONTRACTING PARTIES,

DESIRING to develop and maintain the protection of the rights of performers and producers of phonograms in a manner as effective and uniform as possible,

RECOGNISING the need to introduce new international rules in order to provide adequate solutions to the questions raised by economic, social, cultural and technological developments,

RECOGNISING the profound impact of the development and convergence of information and communication technologies on the production and use of performances and phonograms,

RECOGNISING the need to maintain a balance between the rights of performers and producers of phonograms and the larger public interest, particularly education, research and access to information,

HAVE AGREED AS FOLLOWS:

CHAPTER I GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1

Relation to other Conventions

1. Nothing in this Treaty shall derogate from existing obligations that Contracting Parties have to each other under the International Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organisations done in Rome, 26 October 1961 (hereinafter the 'Rome Convention`).

2. Protection granted under this Treaty shall leave intact and shall in no way affect the protection of copyright in literary and artistic works. Consequently, no provision of this Treaty may be interpreted as prejudicing such protection.

3. This Treaty shall not have any connection with, nor shall it prejudice any rights and obligations under, any other treaties.

Article 2

Definitions

For the purposes of this Treaty:

(a) 'performers` are actors, singers, musicians, dancers, and other persons who act, sing, deliver, declaim, play in, interpret, or otherwise perform literary or artistic works or expressions of folklore;

(b) 'phonogram` means the fixation of the sounds of a performance or of other sounds, or of a representation of sounds, other than in the form of a fixation incorporated in a cinematographic or other audiovisual work;

(c) 'fixation` means the embodiment of sounds, or of the representations thereof, from which they can be perceived, reproduced or communicated through a device;

(d) 'producer of a phonogram` means the person, or the legal entity, who or which takes the initiative and has the responsibility for the first fixation of the sounds of a performance or other sounds, or the representations of sounds;

(e) 'publication` of a fixed performance or a phonogram means the offering of copies of the fixed performance or the phonogram to the public, with the consent of the rightholder, and provided that copies are offered to the public in reasonable quantity;

(f) 'broadcasting` means the transmission by wireless means for public reception of sounds or of images and sounds or of the representations thereof; such transmission by satellite is also 'broadcasting`; transmission of encrypted signals is 'broadcasting` where the means for decrypting are provided to the public by the broadcasting organisation or with its consent;

(g) 'communication to the public` of a performance or a phonogram means the transmission to the public by any medium, otherwise than by broadcasting, of sounds of a performance or the sounds or the representations of sounds fixed in a phonogram. For the purposes of Article 15, 'communication to the public` includes making the sounds or representations of sounds fixed in a phonogram audible to the public.

Article 3

Beneficiaries of protection under this Treaty

1. Contracting Parties shall accord the protection provided under this Treaty to the performance and producers of phonograms who are nationals of other Contracting Parties.

2. The nationals of other Contracting Parties shall be understood to be those performers or producers of phonograms who would meet the criteria for eligibility for protection provided under the Rome Convention, were all the Contracting Parties to this Treaty Contracting States of that Convention. In respect of these criteria of eligibility, Contracting Parties shall apply the relevant definitions in Article 2 of this Treaty.

3. Any Contracting Party availing itself of the possibilities provided in Article 5(3) of the Rome Convention or, for the purposes of Article 5 of the same Convention, Article 17 thereof shall make a notification as foreseen in those provisions to the Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).

Article 4

National treatment

1. Each Contracting Party shall accord to nationals of other Contracting Parties, as defined in Article 3(2), the treatment it accords to its own nationals with regard to the exclusive rights specifically granted in this Treaty, and to the right to equitable remuneration provided for in Article 15 of the Treaty.

2. The obligation provided for in paragraph 1 does not apply to the extent that another Contracting Party makes use of the reservations permitted by Article 15(3) of this Treaty.

CHAPTER II RIGHTS OF PERFORMERS

Article 5

Moral rights of performers

1. Independently of a performer's economic rights, and even after the transfer of those rights, the performer shall, as regards his live aural performances or performances fixed in phonograms, have the right to claim to be identified as the performer of his performances, except where omission is dictated by the manner of the use of the performance, and to object to any distortion, mutilation or other modification of his performances that would be prejudicial to his reputation.

2. The rights granted to a performer in accordance with paragraph 1 shall, after his death, be maintained, at least until the expiry of the economic rights, and shall be exercisable by the persons or institutions authorised by the legislation of the Contracting Party where protection is claimed. However, those Contracting Parties whose legislation, at the moment of their ratification of or accession to this Treaty, does not provide for protection after the death of the performer of all rights set out in the preceding paragraph may provide that some of these rights will, after his death, cease to be maintained.

3. The means of redress for safeguarding the rights granted under this Article shall be governed by the legislation of the Contracting Party where protection is claimed.

Article 6

Economic rights of performers in their unfixed performances

Performers shall enjoy the exclusive right of authorising, as regards their performances:

(i) the broadcasting and communication to the public of their unfixed performance except where the performance is already a broadcast performance and

(ii) the fixation of their unfixed performances.

Article 7

Right of reproduction

Performers shall enjoy the exclusive right of authorising the direct or indirect reproduction of their performances fixed in phonograms, in any manner or form.

Article 8

Right of distribution

1. Performers shall enjoy the exclusive right of authorising the making available to the public of the original and copies of their performances fixed in phonograms through sale or other transfer of ownership.

2. Nothing in this Treaty shall affect the freedom of Contracting Parties to determine the conditions, if any, under which the exhaustion of the right in paragraph 1 applies after the first sale or other transfer of ownership of the original or a copy of the fixed performance with the authorisation of the performer.

Article 9

Right of rental

1. Performers shall enjoy the exclusive right of authorising the commercial rental to the public of the original and copies of their performances fixed in phonograms as determined in the national law of Contracting Parties, even after distribution of them by, or pursuant to, authorisation by the performer.

2. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph 1, a Contracting Party that, on 15 April 1994, had and continues to have in force a system of equitable remuneration of performers for the rental of copies of their performances fixed in phonograms, may maintain that system provided that the commercial rental of phonograms is not giving rise to the material impairment of the exclusive right of reproduction of performers.

Article 10

Right of making available of fixed performances

Performers shall enjoy the exclusive right of authorising the making available to the public of their performances fixed in phonograms, by wire or wireless means, in such a way that members of the public may access them from a place and at a time individually chosen by them.

CHAPTER III RIGHTS OF PRODUCERS OF PHONOGRAMS

Article 11

Right of reproduction

Producers of phonograms shall enjoy the exclusive right of authorising the direct or indirect reproduction of their phonograms, in any manner or form.

Article 12

Right of distribution

1. Producers of phonograms shall enjoy the exclusive right of authorising the making available to the public of the original and copies of their phonograms through sale or other transfer of ownership.

2. Nothing in this Treaty shall affect the freedom of Contracting Parties to determine the conditions, if any, under which the exhaustion of the right in paragraph 1 applies after the first sale of other transfer of ownership of the original or a copy of the phonogram with the authorisation of the producer of the phonogram.

Article 13

Right of rental

1. Producers of phonograms shall enjoy the exclusive right of authorising the commercial rental to the public of the original and copies of their phonograms, even after distribution of them by, or pursuant to, authorisation by the producer.

2. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph 1, a Contracting Party that, on 15 April 1994, had and continues to have in force a system of equitable remuneration of producers of phonograms for the rental of copies of their phonograms, may maintain that system provided that the commercial rental of phonograms is not giving rise to the material impairment of the exclusive right of reproduction of producers of phonograms.

Article 14

Right of making available of phonograms

Producers of phonograms shall enjoy the exclusive right of authorising the making available to the public of their phonograms, by wire or wireless means, in such a way that members of the public may access them from a place and at a time individually chosen by them.

CHAPTER IV COMMON PROVISIONS

Article 15

Right to remuneration for broadcasting and communication to the public

1. Performers and producers of phonograms shall enjoy the right to a single equitable remuneration for the direct or indirect use of phonograms published for commercial purposes for broadcasting or for any communication to the public.

2. Contracting Parties may establish in their national legislation that the single equitable remuneration shall be claimed from the user by the performer or by the producer of a phonogram or by both. Contracting Parties may enact national legislation that, in the absence of an agreement between the performer and the producer of a phonogram, sets the terms according to which performers and producers of phonograms shall share the single equitable remuneration.

3. Any Contracting Party may, in a notification deposited with the Director General of WIPO, declare that it will apply the provisions of paragraph 1 only in respect of certain uses, or that it will limit their application in some other way, or that it will not apply these provisions at all.

4. For the purposes of this Article, phonograms made available to the public by wire or wireless means in such a way that members of the public may access them from a place and at a time individually chosen by them shall be considered as if they had been published for commercial purposes.

Article 16

Limitations and exceptions

1. Contracting Parties may, in their national legislation, provide for the same kinds of limitations or exceptions with regard to the protection of performers and producers of phonograms as they provide for, in their national legislation, in connection with the protection of copyright in literary and artistic works.

2. Contracting Parties shall confine any limitations of or exceptions to rights provided for in this Treaty to certain special cases which do not conflict with a normal exploitation of the performance or phonogram and do not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the performer or of the producer of the phonogram.

Article 17

Term of protection

1. The term of protection to be granted to performers under this Treaty shall last, at least, until the end of a period of 50 years computed from the end of the year in which the performance was fixed in a phonogram.

2. The term of protection to be granted to producers of phonograms under this Treaty shall last, until the end of a period of 50 years computed from the end of the year in which the phonogram was published, or failing such publication within 50 years from fixation of the phonogram, 50 years from the end of the year in which the fixation was made.

Article 18

Obligations concerning technological measures

Contracting Parties shall provide adequate legal protection and effective legal remedies against the circumvention of effective technological measures that are used by performers or producers of phonograms in connection with the exercise of their rights under this Treaty and that restrict acts, in respect of their performances or phonograms, which are not authorised by the performers or the producers of phonograms concerned or permitted by law.

Article 19

Obligations concerning rights management information

1. Contracting Parties shall provide adequate and effective legal remedies against any person knowingly performing any of the following acts knowing, or with respect to civil remedies having reasonable grounds to know, that it will induce, enable, facilitate or conceal an infringement of any right covered by this Treaty:

(i) to remove or alter any electronic rights management information without authority;

(ii) to distribute, import for distribution, broadcast, communicate or make available to the public, without authority, performances, copies of fixed performances or phonograms knowing that electronic rights management information has been removed or altered without authority.

2. As used in this Article, 'rights management information` means information which identifies the performer, the performance of the performer, the producer of the phonogram, the phonogram, the owner of any right in the performance or phonogram, or information about the terms and conditions of use of the performance or phonogram, and any numbers or codes that represent such information, when any of these items of information is attached to a copy of a fixed performance or a phonogram or appears in connection with the communication or making available of a fixed performance or a phonogram to the public.

Article 20

Formalities

The enjoyment and exercise of the rights provided for in this Treaty shall not be subject to any formality.

Article 21

Reservations

Subject to the provisions of Article 15(3), no reservations to this Treaty shall be permitted.

Article 22

Application in time

1. Contracting Parties shall apply the provisions of Article 18 of the Berne Convention, mutatis mutandis, to the rights of performers and producers of phonograms provided for in this Treaty.

2. Notwithstanding paragraph 1, a Contracting Party may limit the application of Article 5 of this Treaty to performances which occurred after the entry into force of this Treaty for that Party.

Article 23

Provisions on enforcement of rights

1. Contracting Parties undertake to adopt, in accordance with their legal systems, the measures necessary to ensure the application of this Treaty.

2. Contracting Parties shall ensure that enforcement procedures are available under their law so as to permit effective action against any act of infringement of rights covered by this Treaty, including expeditious remedies to prevent infringements and remedies which constitute a deterrent to further infringements.

CHAPTER V ADMINISTRATIVE AND FINAL CLAUSES

Article 24

Assembly

1. (a) The Contracting Parties shall have an Assembly.

(b) Each Contracting Party shall be represented by one delegate who may be assisted by alternate delegates, advisors and experts.

(c) The expenses of each delegation shall be borne by the Contracting Party that has appointed the delegation. The Assembly may ask WIPO to grant financial assistance to facilitate the participation of delegations of Contracting Parties that are regarded as developing countries in conformity with the established practice of the General Assembly of the United Nations or that are countries in transition to a market economy.

2. (a) The Assembly shall deal with matters concerning the maintenance and development of this Treaty and the application and operation of this Treaty.

(b) The Assembly shall perform the function allocated to it under Article 26(2) in respect of the admission of certain intergovernmental organisations to become party to this Treaty.

(c) The Assembly shall decide the convocation of any diplomatic conference for the revision of this Treaty and give the necessary instructions to the Director General of WIPO for the preparation of such diplomatic conference.

3. (a) Each Contracting Party that is a State shall have one vote and shall vote only in its own name.

(b) Any Contracting Party that is an intergovernmental organisation may participate in the vote, in place of its Member States, with a number of votes equal to the number of its Member States which are party to this Treaty. No such intergovernmental organisation shall participate in the vote if any one of its Member States exercises its right to vote and vice versa.

4. The Assembly shall meet in ordinary session once every two years upon convocation by the Director General of WIPO.

5. The Assembly shall establish its own rules of procedure, including the convocation of extraordinary sessions, the requirements of a quorum and, subject to the provisions of this Treaty, the required majority for various kinds of decisions.

Article 25

International Bureau

The International Bureau of WIPO shall perform the administrative tasks concerning the Treaty.

Article 26

Eligibility for becoming party to the Treaty

1. Any Member State of WIPO may become party to this Treaty.

2. The Assembly may decide to admit any intergovernmental organisation to become party to this Treaty which declares that it is competent in respect of, and has its own legislation binding on all its Member States on, matters covered by this Treaty and that it has been duly authorised, in accordance with its internal procedures, to become party to this Treaty.

3. The European Community, having made the declaration referred to in the preceding paragraph in the Diplomatic Conference that has adopted this Treaty, may become party to this Treaty.

Article 27

Rights and obligations under the Treaty

Subject to any specific provisions to the contrary in this Treaty, each Contracting Party shall enjoy all of the rights and assume all of the obligations under this Treaty.

Article 28

Signature of the Treaty

This Treaty shall be open for signature until 31 December 1997, by any Member State of WIPO and by the European Community.

Article 29

Entry into force of the Treaty

This Treaty shall enter into force three months after 30 instruments of ratification or accession by States have been deposited with the Director General of WIPO.

Article 30

Effective date of becoming party to the Treaty

This Treaty shall bind

(i) the 30 States referred to in Article 29, from the date on which this Treaty has entered into force;

(ii) each other State from the expiration of three months from the date on which the State has deposited its instrument with the Director General of WIPO;

(iii) the European Community, from the expiration of three months after the deposit of its instrument of ratification or accession if such instrument has been deposited after the entry into force of this Treaty according to Article 29, or three months after the entry into force of this Treaty if such instrument has been deposited before the entry into force of this Treaty;

(iv) any other intergovernmental organisation that is admitted to become party to this Treaty, from the expiration of three months after the deposit of its instrument of accession.

Article 31

Denunciation of the Treaty

This Treaty may be denounced by any Contracting Party by notification addressed to the Director General of WIPO. Any denunciation shall take effect one year from the date on which the Director General of WIPO received the notification.

Article 32

Languages of the Treaty

1. This Treaty is signed in a single original in the English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish languages, the versions in all these languages being equally authentic.

2. An official text in any language other than those referred to in paragraph 1 shall be established by the Director General of WIPO on the request of an interested party, after consultation with all the interested parties. For the purposes of this paragraph, 'interested party` means any Member State of WIPO whose official language, or one of whose official languages, is involved and the European Community, and any other intergovernmental organisation that may become party to this Treaty, if one of its official languages is involved.

Article 33

Depositary

The Director General of WIPO is the depositary of this Treaty.