[A2k] IP-Watch: WIPO Patent Harmonisation Effort Stalls Until September Assembly

[Carolyn Deere]

A new entry has been posted to the Intellectual Property Watch website.

Link to the complete article:
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=266&res=1024&print=0

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

WIPO Patent Harmonisation Effort Stalls Until September Assembly

by William New, April 12, 2006 @ 7:21 pm

Government negotiators addressing the global harmonisation of patent systems
today could not agree on a work programme for a key World Intellectual
Property Organization committee, effectively stalling debate on the issue
until the end of the year.

"It is not yet the time," said Ron Marchant, chief executive and comptroller
general of the United Kingdom Patent Office, who chaired the end of the
meeting on the issue. Nations "need to rethink" their positions, he said.

The 10-12 April informal session of the Standing Committee on the Law of
Patents (SCP) was mandated by the October 2005 WIPO General Assembly to
define a work programme for a formal five-day SCP meeting later this year.
That meeting now will not take place.

The outcome effectively grounds a long-standing push by the developed
nations holding most of the world's intellectual property harmonise global
patent systems through WIPO.

"It's a frustration," said an official from the Group B developed countries.
"We came here with a constructive spirit and were willing to find a way to
include the concerns of others. We wanted to have a work plan."

Another developed country official said it was a "difficult situation," but
said it was a "good thing" as it was "an honest discussion." The official
said that of the three WIPO committees conducting policy negotiations,
"we've stopped in one."

"People are going to have to rethink their paradigms," he said.

WIPO has been under pressure, at least indirectly from US industry groups,
to get movement on patent harmonisation. An indication of the importance of
the issue to WIPO came from a closed breakfast meeting with key officials
held by WIPO Director General Kamil Idris. One participant said Idris urged
negotiators to make progress.

"We all worked very hard toward a result," an official from the 15-nation
Friends of Development group said. There were "demonstrations of flexibility
in the way that we discussed each other's view."

"There were indications that countries had moved away from their previous
entrenched positions but it was not enough to reach agreement," the official
said.

Developed countries, the United States and Japan in particular, remained
firm that negotiations should centre on four key areas of substantive patent
law. Developing countries sought to address nine issues, and agreed to
address all 13 together, but it had to be on equal footing. (IPW, WIPO, 11
April 2006)

Earlier on the last day, the European Union privately signalled a
willingness to consider a combination of the four legal issues sought by
Japan and the United States and several issues from the list of nine from
the Friends of Development. Their suggestion showed an openness to certain
parts of developing country demands on the disclosure of origin of genetic
material in patent applications. But they did not show openness to terms on
prior informed consent and the sharing of benefits from that material.

After spending much of the past two days in closed, regional meetings,
Thailand on behalf of the Asian Group offered a last-minute suggestion to
address the first four issues on the first two days of the five-day SCP,
followed by two days on any remaining issues. The suggestion failed
apparently because developed countries could not agree to place the other
issues on the agenda, and developing countries insisted their other issues
be treated on "equal footing" with the first four, rather than prioritised.

Possible Impact on Other WIPO Committees

Some officials raised concern that the end of discussion on patent
harmonisation could remove a bargaining chip for developing countries
seeking major reform of WIPO toward development issues, and other policy
changes related to protection of genetic resources and traditional
knowledge.

"This [patents] was the big motor behind everything," one official said.

Francis Gurry, WIPO Deputy Director General overseeing patents, called the
meeting "very positive" since it allowed all sides to put their ideas
forward clearly. "Countries better understand their positions," he said in
an interview. Gurry said WIPO will continue to be involved in a great deal
of patent activity, especially through its Patent Cooperation Treaty, which
harmonised procedures. "It's not like WIPO isn't doing anything on patents,"
Gurry said. But the SCP meeting "was the work programme on the new issues."

"We must cultivate a spirit of give and take," said a Zambian official.

But another developing country official said, "I think it is good sometimes
to give some sort of shock treatment to those on the extreme ends" of the
issues.


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

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 wnew@ip-watch.ch.
You can subscribe for automatic notifications of these stories, via the RSS
feed or via the e-mail alerts. Subscribers can choose the frequency of
notifications as well as particular topics of greatest interest to them.