[A2k] IP-Watch: India Joins Opposition To Casablanca Patent Meeting Outcome

[Manon Ress]

India Joins Opposition To Casablanca Patent Meeting Outcome
at Intellectual Property Watch weblog
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index_test.php?p=3D41

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=92s mandate by entering into substantive discussions.

The recommendations that emerged resembled an earlier proposal by the
=93trilateral=94 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 =96 prior art, grace period, novelty, and inventive step =96 would b=
e
addressed in the Standing Committee on Patents (SCP). The other two
issues =96 sufficiency of disclosure and genetic resources =96 would be
relegated to the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property
and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC).

=93India 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,=94 said a developing country
official familiar with India=92s 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=92s 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=92s Council of Scientific and
Industrial Research with a reputation as a proponent of intellectual
property rights.

=93On April 5, India clarified to WIPO that there has been no change in
India=92s long-standing position on subjects addressed at the Casablanca
meeting,=94 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 =93wholistic approach be adopted=94 and that all
issues be tackled =93within a single negotiating framework.=94

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
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free, non-commercial reproduction and translation.
William New, the author of this post, may be reached at wnew@ip-watch.org.

--
Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@cptech.org,
www.cptech.org

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