[Fsfe-uk] IPR Commision conference

[Alistair Davidson]

This turned up in my inbox yesterday. I can't afford to go given my student's 
income, but it occurs to me that at least one of us should be there, and there 
are people who're far closer to London than I am:


COMMISSION ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

CONFERENCE

TO BE HELD AT THE ROYAL SOCIETY,
6 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AG


21- 22 FEBRUARY 2002


HOW INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS COULD WORK BETTER FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES 
AND POOR PEOPLE

The Commission on Intellectual Property Rights will be holding a conference on 
21 and 22 February next year at the Royal Society in London.

The Conference is designed to discuss how intellectual property rights could 
work better to promote development in developing countries and reduce poverty. 
 It precedes the drafting of the Commission's report and seeks to draw 
together the different threads of the Commission's work which it has pursued 
through visits to developing countries, workshops of experts and stakeholders, 
on-line discussions and other interactions with those interested in how 
intellectual property rights could work better for poor people.  In 
particular, the Commission will be seeking the views of participants on the 
progress of its work to date and on whether they have properly identified the 
right issues in the intellectual property field relevant to poor people and 
developing countries.

The Conference will be opened by the Rt. Hon. Clare Short MP, the UK Secretary 
of State for International Development.   Dr Supachai Panitchpakdi, the 
Director-General Designate of the World Trade Organisation, will also 
participate and address the Conference.

The exact programme for the workshop is still being worked out, but a first 
draft of the programme is attached.

The basic format for conference sessions will be a short presentation by 
panellists of the Commission's work to date, based on the series of workshops 
held by the Commission in each of its areas of interest. This will be followed 
by an open discussion with Conference participants.

Background papers will include papers prepared for the Commission's workshops 
and the reports from those workshops.  These will be available on the 
Commission's website as they are finalised.

The Conference will be open to all, but numbers will be limited to the maximum 
capacity of about 250.

Unfortunately the Commission will be unable to provide any expenses to cover 
participation.

More background and information on the Commission is on our website 
(www.iprcommission.org).

If you would like to participate, please return the registration form attached 
by 31 December 2001.  We will let you know before 31 January whether there is 
room for you.


Charles Clift
Secretary
Commission on Intellectual Property Rights
26 Dover Street, London, W1S 4LY




I have the booking form, I can forward on to anyone who wants it- .doc format, 
but I can convert to abw or rtf or whatever if needed. Amusing that they send 
out an invitation to an IP conference in a proprietary format, if severely 
worrying.

--
Alistair Davidson
Read my comic, Bizmatch! http://www.altgeek.org/lord_inh/comic/index.html
"Disloyalty in a democracy is to stop asking questions."