[DMCA-Activists] IPJ: Support Development Agenda at WIPO

[Seth Johnson]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Request for support for reform at WIPO - Group NGO stmt
supportingDevelopment Agenda available for sign-on
Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 12:06:08 -0700
From: Robin Gross <address@hidden>
To: address@hidden

Dear colleagues,

Apologies for the cross-posting, but ....

Below is a statement for publication at next week's WIPO
Development Agenda Meeting.  Civil society groups are invited to
sign-on to the statement to show support for reform at WIPO, and
specifically, support for the Friends of Development proposal.

Background info on the WIPO Development Agenda meeting is posted
at:
  http://www.ipjustice.org/WIPO/WIPO_DA.shtml

If your NGO would like to sign-on in support of this statement,
please send me an email (address@hidden) and indicate the
NGO name and country in which your NGO is based.

Please send your support for this statement by TUESDAY 19 JULY so
we can publish this on Wednesday JULY 20th at the beginning of
3rd IIM of the Development Agenda meeting at WIPO.

And please distribute this statement as widely as possible and
encourage other groups to please sign-on, so we can show the WIPO
delegates that public-interest groups support reform at WIPO.

Within the next day or so, this group statement (and
translations) will also be posted to the web at:
  http://www.ipjustice.org/WIPO/NGO_Statement.shtml
and supporting NGO names will be added there as they come in.

Our statement would be much more effective if we had it
translated into other languages - particularly Spanish, French,
German, Italian, and Portuguese.  If anyone is able to translate
this document into any of these languages (or others), please let
me know asap.  We'd like to distribute hard-copies of these
translations at the 20-22 July meeting also, so will need the
translations completed by the 19th so we can make copies in
Geneva for distribution on the 20th.

Thank you!!
Robin Gross
address@hidden
IP Justice

===============================================

We, the undersigned public interest non-governmental
organizations  support the adoption of the proposal submitted by
the Group of Friends  of Development (FoD) for a Development
Agenda at the World Intellectual  Property Organization (WIPO).

Specifically, we call attention to the following principles in
the FoD  proposal and recommend that Member States:

1.   AMEND THE WIPO CONVENTION (1967) TO EXPRESSLY INCORPORATE A 
DEVELOPMENT DIMENSION, CONSISTENT WITH WIPO OBLIGATIONS AS A UN
AGENCY

Public interest NGOs fully support Proposal 1 of the adopted Work
Plan  (Annex to Summary of Chair), which proposes amending the
WIPO Convention  to include explicit language incorporating a
development dimension and  the specific language for such change
set forth in WO/GA/31/11, appendix 3.

The 1974 agreement between the United Nations and WIPO
established WIPO  as a specialized agency of the UN family with
responsibility for  “promoting creative intellectual activity and
for facilitating the  transfer of technology related to
industrial property to the developing  countries in order to
accelerate economic, social and cultural  development, subject to
the competence and responsibilities of the  United Nations and
its organs . . . .”

Amending WIPO’s mandate will enhance and inscribe a development 
dimension into the organization’s core, ensuring WIPO will
maintain its  responsibility to the UN and promote the public
interest, first and  foremost.

2.  CONSIDER ELABORATION OF A TREATY ON ACCESS TO KNOWLEDGE AND
TECHNOLOGY

We fully support Proposal 3 of the adopted Work Plan that calls
on  Member States to consider elaboration of a Treaty on Access
to Knowledge  and Technology.

Access to knowledge and information sharing are fundamental to
education  and research and to fostering innovation and
creativity. A treaty  setting out user freedoms would address
“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”
as set out in the Preamble to the WIPO  Copyright Treaty.

A treaty on access to knowledge and technology would be a key
component  in policy interventions to alleviate the situation in
disadvantaged  countries and would be of benefit to the overall
socio-economic and  political development of a country.

3.  ESTABLISH AN INDEPENDENT WIPO EVALUATION AND RESEARCH OFFICE
(WERO)

Public interest NGOs fully support Proposal 5 of the adopted Work
Plan  that calls for the establishment of WERO.

The creation of an independent research office that would report 
directly to the General Assembly is an important component to the
reform  mandated by the General Assembly’s adoption of the
Development Agenda.  The creation of WERO would strengthen the
oversight function of Member  States at WIPO, enhance the
credibility of WIPO and its programmess, and  would comply with
established international practice in other  organizations such
as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

As set forth in the FoD Proposal, the establishment of WERO
would  provide a transparent, independent and objective body that
would  evaluate all WIPO programmes and activities with respect
to their  development impact in general and their impact on
innovation, creativity  and dissemination of knowledge and
technology; assess the development  impact of all proposed
norm-setting activities in WIPO; and monitor and  evaluate all
WIPO technical assistance activities based on guidelines 
established by the General Assembly.

4.  ADOPT PRINCIPLES AND GUIDELINES FOR THE TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
PROGRAMME

We fully support the proposals which relate to Technical
Assistance.  These are Proposal 4 to Formulate and Adopt
Principles and Guidelines  for the Development and Implementation
of Technical Assistance; Proposal  10 to Improve Information
Sharing on Technical Assistance; and Proposal  14 to Develop
Indicators and Benchmarks for the Evaluation of WIPO  Technical
Assistance.

We believe that these proposals would enhance the value of
technical  assistance to developing countries by providing
opportunities to review  technical assistance programmes and keep
them fresh, to include new or  alternative business and software
models and to ensure that a  cross-section of stakeholder
interests are represented. Consultation  with a wide range of
groups such as libraries, educators, people with  disabilities
and consumers, as well as creators and rightsholders would  help
to build capacity and improve governance, a key component of the 
2005 Report of the Commission for Africa.

5.  REFORM WIPO NORMS AND PRACTICES:

     A.  Weigh the costs and benefits of copyright, patent and
trademark  rights

Public interest NGOs fully support Proposal 7 of the adopted Work
Plan  to formulate and adopt principles and guidelines for
norm-setting  activities in WIPO. WIPO must acknowledge the costs
and benefits of both  information monopolies and harmonization.

Continuously expanding the scope and level of copyright, patent
and  trademark rights creates real social and economic costs.
Norm-setting  activities must follow guidelines that balance
public access and  competition policies against monopoly rights
in knowledge and  information, and that weigh the economic cost
of maintaining and  enforcing these systems against the relative
benefits in each country.

In order to reach effective results that meet the challenges of
global  development, internationally agreed upon developmental
standards should  serve as benchmarks for WIPO norm-setting
activities to meet. The United  Nations Millennium Development
Goals,  which all 191 UN Member States  have pledged to meet,
establish development standards that copyright,  patent and
trademark laws should seek to facilitate.

     B.  Copyright, patent and trademark rights are not ends in 
themselves and must foster   the public goals of innovation,
creativity  and technical development

Public interest NGOs fully support Proposal 8 of the adopted Work
Plan  to undertake independent, evidence-based “development
impact assessments.”

International instruments recognize the underlying public goals
of  copyright, patent and trademark laws. The WIPO Copyright
Treaty  recognizes that copyright law serves “to maintain a
balance between the  interests of authors and the larger public
interest, particularly  education, research, and access to
information.”  Trade Related Aspects  of Intellectual Property
(TRIPS) Art. 7 explicitly stipulates a balanced  and harmonious
outlook between these rights and the public interest.

It is essential that copyright, patent and trademark rights
foster  innovation, creativity and technical development. WIPO
must adopt a  framework that can ensure that these information
monopolies advance  public goals in developing countries. The FoD
proposal for a Development  Agenda at WIPO provides an excellent
blueprint to begin this reform.

     C.  “One size (XL) fits all” approach to copyright, patent
and  trademark rights does not foster development in all
countries

International norms for copyright, patent and trademark rights
need to  take into account different levels of development to
ensure that the  primary rationale for granting the rights, to
promote societal  development by encouraging technological
innovation, is actually  accomplished.

Expansive copyright, patent and trademark rights
disproportionately  favor wealthy developed countries and
perpetuate the current imbalance  in access to and control of
knowledge and information. Copyright, patent  and trademark laws
must reflect each country’s development needs to  better
facilitate access to information and knowledge throughout the 
world. Such access is strongly called for in the “Doha Plan of
Action”  agreed by the Heads of State and Government of the Group
of 77 and China    and in the “Declaration of Principles” of the
World Summit on the  Information Society .

All countries have a right to make their own economic
development  strategies, which are inherently value based.
Articles 1 and 8 of TRIPS  recognize both national sovereignty
concerning development strategies  and national values.   WIPO’s
“one-size-fits-all” approach improperly  assumes that western
intellectual property policy embodies universal values.

     D.  Copyright, patent and trademark laws need to protect 
flexibilities and limitations

International instruments and developed countries’ own
copyright,  trademark and patent laws provide for flexibilities
and limitations that  ensure the promotion of social values.
Competition policy, compulsory  licenses for medicine, and fair
use exceptions demonstrate that monopoly  rights can be curtailed
to achieve public benefits.

Countries need to have policy space to meet national
developmental  priorities. Creative expression is value driven
and copyright, patent  and trademark law governs what type of
creative expression is either  permissible or infringing, and
what type of creative expression is  “protectable” and to what
extent. Since all Member States have a natural  right to exercise
their own values and the legal system is the principal  means
through which society can assert its values, all nations have a 
natural right to make value choices regarding their own level of 
copyright, patent and trademark rights.

WIPO technical assistance should promote the full range of
flexibilities  provided by TRIPS, including education and
promotion of non-proprietary  free and open access development
models.

     E.  More transparent and Member driven with ongoing public
interest  participation

Public interest NGOs fully support Proposals 6 and 9 of the
adopted Work  Plan which, respectively, seek to ensure wider
participation of public  interest NGOs at WIPO, and to establish
a system of holding public  hearings prior to the initiation of
norm-setting activities.

The FoD proposal initiates an important dialogue on making
fundamental  changes to ensure that WIPO is truly Member driven,
as the majority of  WIPO constituents are from developing
countries. In order to progress as  a Member-driven organization,
WIPO must address the development concerns  of its Members in all
aspects of its work.


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