Japan and the United States have agreed to get working on creating an international convention to prevent the spread of illegally copied products by holding a meeting with several interested countries this fall, government officials said Saturday.
Tokyo and Washington have been calling on Switzerland, Britain, France, Germany, South Korea and Singapore to join the process, which was originally proposed by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi during last year's Group of Eight summit.
Japanese diplomats raised the topic with their Swiss counterparts late last month during a study group session on a bilateral free-trade agreement and received a positive response, according to the officials.