[DMCA-Activists] IP-Watch: India Opposes To Casablanca Patent Meeting Outcome

[Seth Johnson]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [A2k] IP-Watch: India Joins Opposition To Casablanca
Patent Meeting Outcome
Date: Sun, 10 Apr 2005 19:28:51 -0400
From: Manon Ress <address@hidden>
To: a2k discuss list <address@hidden>

India Joins Opposition To Casablanca Patent Meeting Outcome

at Intellectual Property Watch weblog

http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index_test.php?p=41

10/4/2005
India Joins Opposition To Casablanca Patent Meeting Outcome

by William New @ 9:11 pm

India, a critical player in policy debates at the World
Intellectual Property Organisation, has announced its opposition
to a recommendation on global patent harmonisation backed by a
select group of countries in a February consultation with WIPO
Director General Kamil Idris.

The recommendation was agreed to by all but one participant in an
invite-only consultation Idris held in Casablanca, Morocco in
mid-February. Some developing countries not invited to the
meeting as well as invitee Brazil have since criticized the
Casablanca gathering as reaching beyond WIPO’s mandate by
entering into substantive discussions.

The recommendations that emerged resembled an earlier proposal by
the “trilateral” group of the European Union, Japan and the
United States, rejected last year at WIPO. The Casablanca
statement recommended six issues be addressed in an accelerated
manner within WIPO. The first four issues – prior art, grace
period, novelty, and inventive step – would be addressed in the
Standing Committee on Patents (SCP). The other two issues –
sufficiency of disclosure and genetic resources – would be
relegated to the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual
Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and
Folklore (IGC).

“India does not support the recommendations made by the
Casablanca consultations, which would have the effect of
separating the issues by placing them on two different tracks,”
said a developing country official familiar with India’s letter.
The concern is that the issues of disclosure and genetic
resources, which are important to developing countries, would be
sidelined in a separate committee.

Until India’s announcement on 5 April, there had been ambiguity
over its position, since the Casablanca consultation was chaired
by R.A. Mashelkar, director-general of India’s Council of
Scientific and Industrial Research with a reputation as a
proponent of intellectual property rights.

“On April 5, India clarified to WIPO that there has been no
change in India’s long-standing position on subjects addressed at
the Casablanca meeting,” a developing country official said of a
letter sent to WIPO. India also clarified to WIPO that Dr.
Mashelkar participated in his individual capacity.

India stated that in the Substantive Law Patent Treaty talks,
which are taking place in the SCP, a “wholistic approach be
adopted” and that all issues be tackled “within a single
negotiating framework.”

India also said it is associated with the Friends of Development
position on Casablanca, issued shortly after the consultation,
which was unsupportive of the outcome. The Friends of Development
is a group of fourteen developing countries that co-sponsored a
fall 2004 proposal for a WIPO Development Agenda which is under
discussion this week in Geneva.

India has indicated support for an elaborated proposal on the
Development Agenda by the Friends of Development issued last
week.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. All of
the news articles and features on Intellectual Property Watch are
also subject to a Creative Commons License which makes them
available for widescale, free, non-commercial reproduction and
translation. William New, the author of this post, may be reached
at address@hidden

--
Manon Anne Ress
address@hidden,
www.cptech.org

Consumer Project on Technology in Washington, DC PO Box 19367,
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