[DMCA-Activists] WIPO Rekindles Patent Talks As Some Cry Foul

[Seth Johnson]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: <incom> IP Watch: WIPO Rekindles Patent Talks As Some
Cry Foul
Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2005 12:41:12 +0100
From: sz <address@hidden>
To: incom <address@hidden>

WIPO Rekindles Patent Talks As Some Cry Foul

by William New Feb 19 2005 @ 1:47 am

<http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/wp-trackback.php/23>

The World Intellectual Property Organisation on Friday announced
a  recommended path for future work on harmonising patent laws
around the  world. The announcement came after a two-day informal
consultation with  WIPO Director General Kamil Idris and a group
of mostly like-minded  nations in Casablanca, Morocco.

Idris stressed in a release that the talks ending Thursday
positively  addressed development issues raised by certain
developing countries.  “The Casablanca consultations … resulted
in a boost for the whole work  program of WIPO, particularly,
substantive patent law, traditional  knowledge, folklore and
issues related to genetic resources and the  proposed WIPO
Development Agenda,” he said.

“The constructive approach taken during the consultations will,
I  believe, go a long way in resolving outstanding issues in all
these  important areas and demonstrates a commitment to
multilateralism,” he added.

But several developing country officials on Friday were
seething,  charging privately that WIPO had overstepped its
mandate for the  consultations by working on substantive issues.
They also alleged WIPO  had used the venue as a way to sideline
countries who have opposed a  “trilateral” harmonisation proposal
from Europe, Japan and the United  States and who have rejected
efforts to de-link talks on genetic  resources from the
substantive patent law treaty negotiations. WIPO  officials could
not be reached for comment at presstime.

According to developing country sources, only one or two active 
opponents of the trilateral approach or cosponsors of the WIPO 
Development Agenda were invited to the consultation. Instead,
most of  the developing countries invited have been supportive or
silent on the  trilateral approach. Some observers speculated
that the effect of the  invitations was to “isolate” Brazil, a
leading critic of the proposal.  The consultation is technically
non-binding.

The consultation follows on the heels of an invite-only non-WIPO
meeting  this month of developed countries on the issue, hosted
by the U.S.  Patent and Trademark Office (see IP-Watch, Feb. 12,
2005). A USPTO  spokeswoman said Friday the two tracks are
complementary. “The USPTO  commends the efforts of WIPO Director
General Kamil Idris in conducting  these informal consultations
on the future work program of WIPO,” she  said. “We view the
USPTO Exploratory Meeting, and future meetings as  announced at
that meeting, to be complementary to WIPO’s work program  and
hope that they will help facilitate progress on these important 
issues in WIPO.”

Patent harmonisation negotiations have been stalled at WIPO as 
development issues are on the table, and the Geneva-based body
has  reportedly been under pressure from developed countries to
move the  talks forward under the threat of “marginalisation.”

“Clearly, the [WIPO] international bureau and the developed
countries  are trying to bypass WIPO’s formal decision-making
channels,” a  developing country official said. “They have come
to realize that when  multilateral debate and decision-making is
allowed to place in a more  open, inclusive and transparent
setting, such as the formal meetings in  Geneva, they cannot get
their way.”

The meeting statement said delegates “strongly endorsed the
importance  of multilateralism, in particular, in WIPO.” But the
official countered,  “The nature of this meeting, including the
manner in which it was  organized, is completely at odds with the
democratic essence and spirit  of multilateralism. The developed
countries, by working through the WIPO  Secretariat in this
unfortunate way, are making a mockery of  multilateralism.”

The statement, on which Brazil dissented, also said participants
agreed  to address six issues in an accelerated manner within
WIPO: prior art,  grace period, novelty, inventive step,
sufficiency of disclosure and  genetic resources. The first four
issues (prior art, grace period,  novelty and inventive step)
will be addressed in the Standing Committee  on Patents (SCP),
and the other two issues (sufficiency of disclosure  and genetic
resources) in the Intergovernmental Committee on  Intellectual
Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and 
Folklore (IGC).

The first four issues are similar to those proposed by the
“trilateral”  of Europe, Japan and the United States last year,
and rejected by  developing countries at WIPO last fall, sources
said.

The group in Morocco recommended member states make proposals on
the  Development Agenda for discussion at the April 2005
“intersessional  intergovernmental meeting” in Geneva. It also
called for the next SCP  meeting to be held in May, and the next
IGC meeting in June, and that  decisions be sent to the General
Assembly in September.

The statement also set as an objective to discuss development
issues so  that “a robust, effective and actionable WIPO
Development Agenda could  emerge.”

According to WIPO, attendees included delegates from: Brazil,
Chile,  China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Malaysia,
Mexico, Morocco,  Russian Federation, Switzerland, United
Kingdom, United States, African  Regional Industrial Property
Organization, Eurasian Patent Office,  European Patent Office,
African Intellectual Property Organization and  the European
Union. R.A. Mashelkar, Director General of the Council of 
Scientific and Industrial Research and Secretary of the
Department of  Scientific and Industrial Research in India,
chaired the consultations.

–
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