[DMCA-Activists] IP-Watch: Nations Clash On WIPO Development Agenda

[Seth Johnson]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [A2k] IP-Watch: Nations Clash On Future Of WIPO
Development Agenda
Date: Mon, 11 Apr 2005 23:22:48 +0200
From: "Carolyn Deere" <address@hidden>
To: <address@hidden>,
<address@hidden>,<address@hidden>,
<address@hidden>,<address@hidden>

A new entry titled 'Nations Clash On Future Of WIPO Development
Agenda' has been posted to Intellectual Property Watch weblog.

http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index_test.php?p=42


Nations Clash On Future Of WIPO Development Agenda

by William New @ 8:40 pm, 11/4/2005

Developed and developing countries faced off Monday over whether
and how the U.N. World Intellectual Property Organisation's
mission should be transformed to better address the needs of
developing countries.

The basis for the three-day discussion ending Wednesday at the
Geneva-based WIPO is a developing country proposal to change WIPO
into a more typical U.N. organisation by raising the profile of
development concerns throughout its mission.

The United States, the United Kingdom and others say there is no
need for a new body within WIPO, but acknowledge that
improvements could be made to the existing system such as through
better technical assistance to developing countries. The United
States argued for the creation of a partnership database to
improve developing country capacity to benefit from intellectual
property, and said the issue should be placed into the existing
Permanent Committee on Cooperation for Development Related to
Intellectual Property (PCIPD).

"We don't believe the U.N. needs another development agency,"
said the lead U.S. delegate. "We do not support setting up new
bodies." He cited the U.N. Development Program and the U.N.
Conference on Trade and Development as the key UN agencies with
specific development mandates.

The developing country proposal specifically argues against
development issues being limited to technical assistance and
placed solely under the PCIPD.

The United States also argued that WIPO should focus on
intellectual property protection, a point countered by several
countries such as Egypt that want a broader focus.

The U.S. delegate issued a potential threat to WIPO if it adopts
a stronger development focus. "We support WIPO. We would not want
to change WIPO in a direction that would diminish that support,"
he said.

The meeting Monday focused on procedural issues and proposals put
forward in recent weeks by several governments. At a February
consultation on patent harmonisation with mostly like-minded WIPO
members held by Director-General Kamil Idris, participants were
encouraged to submit proposals for this week's meeting, and three
of them did: Mexico, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The U.K. and Mexican proposals generally argue for the status quo
with improvements.

For this week's meeting, the so-called Friends of Development
(fourteen developing country co-sponsors of the original
development agenda proposal last fall), submitted an elaboration
of their previous proposal.

Guilherme de Aguiar Patriota, the lead Brazilian delegate,
characterized the proposal as an opportunity for a "substantive
discussion" on intellectual property and development. He urged
that the discussion focus widely and not be limited to technical
assistance, but said the proposal was written in "modular
fashion" so that decisions could be taken on a step-by-step
basis.

He and others urged that development issues be considered in the
setting of norms and standards for intellectual property.
"Obviously the time has come to rectify the current situation,"
the delegate from Argentina said.

Singapore, speaking on behalf of the Asian countries, welcomed
the Friends of Development proposal and said that intellectual
property protection is "not one size fits all." The Asian Group
statement called for balance, respect for national policies, as
well as to take into account the impact of policies on users of
intellectual property. But a statement also read by Singapore on
behalf of the smaller Association of Southeast Asian Nations did
not specifically back the Friends of Development proposal. It
did, however, "welcome incorporating the development dimension
into all aspects of WIPO."

The so-called Group B of developed countries, represented by
Italy, said development issues are not new for WIPO, but called
for an "urgent stocktaking" of WIPO's activities to see if
developing country needs are being met and whether there could be
better coordination with other agencies.

The regional group for Latin America and the Caribbean,
represented by Jamaica, agreed that discussions should not be
limited to technical assistance. The African countries,
represented by Morocco, reiterated their support from last fall
for the Development Agenda proposal.

During the day, India and Pakistan separately suggested that a
negotiating text be prepared.

This meeting, an "inter-sessional intergovernmental meeting," was
agreed to by the WIPO General Assembly in October 2004. Other
similar meetings may follow in the time before a July deadline to
issue a report for consideration by next September's General
Assembly, diplomatic sources said.

The first day began with a debate over whether the meeting chair,
which is Paraguay, had the right to determine the future of the
development issue based on the meeting. Argentina and Brazil, who
launched the original Development Agenda proposal, argued that
the chair was limited to a non-binding summary of the meeting.
They were joined by a number of developing countries who said the
normal practice for WIPO meetings is for governments to discuss
and adopt a draft report of the meeting prepared by the
secretariat. Brazil reiterated the proposal to add an agenda item
to this effect unless there was specific opposition from other
governments. When no public argument was offered, the chair
affirmed that the agenda would be amended as proposed. A
government official said that the topic was, however,
reconsidered in a closed meeting later in the day.

Another key difference that arose during the day is whether
development issues should be moved to the PCIPD, which meets on
Thursday and Friday of this week. The United States and Group B
favour the move while some developing countries have vowed to
resist it out of concern that development cut across all aspects
of WIPO activities and not be relegated to one committee. The
U.S. view was that if the PCIPD is not sufficient, then it should
be improved.

Another procedural matter at the meeting was the announcement at
the outset that seventeen "ad hoc" (not formally recognized by
WIPO) non-governmental organisations would be allowed to attend
the meeting after all. But the United States said the groups and
their representatives should be carefully scrutinized before
being allowed to attend any future meetings.


------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

To subscribe for automatic notifications of these stories, visit
www.ip-watch.org, then click on Latest News and Email Alerts or
RSS Feed.

_______________________________________________
A2k mailing list
address@hidden
http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/a2k

_______________________________________________
Discussion mailing list
address@hidden
https://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/discussion



No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.9.6 - Release Date: 4/11/05