[A2k] Forum on Substantive Patent Law Treaty starts Wednesday

[Sangeeta]

SUNS #5976 Wednesday 1 March 2006

WIPO: Forum on Substantive Patent Law Treaty starts Wednesday

Geneva, 28 Feb (Sangeeta Shashikant) -- An interesting debate on several
aspects of the international patent regime will take place when WIPO holds
an Open Forum on its Draft Substantive Patent Law Treaty (SPLT) on 1-3 March
2006 at the International Conference Centre in Geneva.

The Forum is part of the attempt by WIPO members to break the present
impasse on the SPLT negotiations.

The developed countries have been attempting to use the SPLT to globally
harmonise patent standards upwards, and want the negotiations to focus on
issues of prior art, grace period, novelty and inventive step. Many
developing countries have been fighting this focus, arguing that the SPLT
should also equally address public interest flexibilities, technology
transfer, the curbing of anti-competitive practices, and disclosure of
origin in patent applications.

The 2005 WIPO General Assembly agreed that an informal open forum would be
held to discuss the issues surrounding the SPLT. Following the forum, a
3-day informal session of the Standing Committee on Patents (SCP) will be
held in Geneva to agree to a work program for the SCP, taking into account
the discussions of the forum.

Many prominent speakers will participate in panels on the forum's five
themes: (I) Harmonization of Substantive Patent Law: Purpose, Approaches and
Limits; (II) Subjects of Patent Law Proposed for Harmonization; (III)
Patents as a Source of Information and Innovation, Transfer of Technology
and Licensing Practices; (IV) New Technologies and their Specificities; and
(V) The Interface of the Patent System with Other Areas of Public Policy.

Themes (I) and (II) will be covered on the first, second and continued on
the third day. Theme (III) will be addressed on the second day and themes
(IV) and (V) on the final day. The full programme of the Open Forum is
available at
http://www.wipo.int/meetings/2006/scp_of_ge_06/en/scp_of_ge_06_inf1.html

Among the speakers are some prominent scholars that have been advocating for
more balance in the international patent system.

These include Professor Carlos Correa from the Faculty of Law and Social
Sciences, University of Buenos Aires, who will speak twice, on "Prior
Art-related Issues" as well as on "Sufficiency of Disclosure"; Nobel
Laureate Sir John Sulston of the Human Genetic Commission on "Biotechnology
Inventions: Patenting of Genes and Life forms and the Impact of Patenting on
Upstream Science"; and Professor Jerome Reichmann from Duke Law School on
"Patent Law Harmonization and the Draft SPLT."

Other speakers include Professor Joshua Sarnoff from the American University
on "Disclosure of Origin of Genetic Resources, Including Compliance with
Prior Informed Consent and Benefit Sharing"; Sisule Musungu from the South
Centre on "Exceptions to Patent Rights"; Dr. Graham Dutfield, Fellow in IP
law at Queen Mary College, University of London, on "Exclusions from
Patentability, Industrial Applicability and Technical Effect"; Narendra
Zaveri, an advocate from Mumbai, India, on "Effective Mechanisms to
Challenge the Validity of Patents"; James Love from Consumer Project on
Technology on "Patents and Public Health"; and Prof. Frederick Abbot from
Florida State University College of Law on "Contractual Licenses and
Technology Transfer."

Speakers who can be expected to represent views in favour of stronger IP
rights include Benjamin Zycher of Pacific Research Institute; Jeffrey Hawley
of Intellectual Property Owners Associations; Benoit Mueller of the Business
Software Alliance; Eric Noehrenberg of International Federation of
Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations; and Alain Gallochat of the
International Association for the Protection of IP.

Officials from national patent offices will also speak, including from
Korea, Denmark, China, and the European Patent Office.

The Open Forum came about as a result of a decision of the 2005 WIPO General
Assembly on how to move forward with discussions that had been deadlocked in
the SCP, on the draft SPLT treaty.

The draft treaty negotiations is part of the WIPO Patent Agenda and aims to
harmonize the substantive aspects of the patent law such as on definitions
of prior art, novelty etc.

Many experts argue that harmonization is not always in the best interest of
developing countries as it will result in upward harmonization and stronger
rights for patent holders, to the detriment of the public and of producers
in developing countries.

There is also concern that a harmonized system may also leave the developing
countries with even less flexibility than they have under the TRIPS
Agreement.

The General Assembly decided that the Open Forum would be held on all issues
that have been raised in the draft of the SPLT or that Member States wish to
include in the draft SPLT.

The Chairman of the Assembly, Ambassador Enrique Manalo, consulted with WIPO
Member States on the program. According to a developing country delegate,
the program that has been fixed for the Open Forum is "quite balanced".

Discussions on the draft SPLT had come to a halt as agreement could not be
reached among WIPO Member States on the future work programme of the SCP at
its last meeting in June 2005.

The developed countries were in favour of limiting discussions in the SCP to
issues of prior art, grace period, novelty and inventive step. Developing
countries were not agreeable to this proposal as they were of the view that
other issues such as public interest flexibilities, transfer of technology,
curbing of anti-competitive practices, and disclosure of origin in patent
applications should be discussed on an equal footing.

Following the forum, a 3-day informal SCP session will be held in Geneva on
10-12 April. Later, an ordinary 5-day session of the SCP will also be held.

It is not known how the open forum's discussions or outcome will be used to
input into the informal SCP session that is to plan a work program for the
ordinary session of the SCP. +