[A2k] KEI general statement @ 3rd Session of WIPO PCDA

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) General Statement  at 3rd Session
of WIPO PCDA

20 February 2007

Knowledge Ecology International thanks the PCDA for approving our
accreditation. We join others in congratulating the Chair and
Vice-Chair, for their elections.

KEI currently has offices in Geneva, London and Washington, DC. The
Consumer Project on Technology, known as CPTech, is supported by KEI.

Our comments focus on the provisions of Annex A.

Several of the provisions of Annex A can be read as fairly standard
endorsements of WIPO=92s efforts to extend and promote the uses of patent
and copyright protections in developing countries =96 measures which are
hardly new for this body.

Like a wedding, WIPO needs something old. But it also needs something
new.

Today a growing number of academic experts, businesses, and consumer,
public health and development group NGOs recognize that intellectual
property policy is complex, and that excessive levels of intellectual
property protection harm both innovation and development. We now know
that patents present barriers to both R&D and access to medicines. We
know that overreaching copyright and related rights can stifle the
development of the Internet.

New ways of sharing information over the Internet are now rapidly
expanding education and development opportunities, and creating vast
new business opportunities for those who understand the new knowledge
ecosystems.

Time Magazine=92s recent decision to declare =93You=94 as the person of the
year was recognition that something new is happening between all of us.

WIPO needs to be part of the new way of thinking. WIPO needs to change,
and begin to acknowledge, respect, and exploit the new opportunities
that we are all facing.

KEI will work with the PCDA to ensure the development agenda is not
simply a repacking of the old ideas and mission, but also the new
ideas, and a modern mission.

For this to happen, WIPO needs to have a fresh commitment to exploring
the new business models, and topics such as

-Creating value from open standards,
-Expanding access to scholarly and scientific research,
-The sharing and repurposing of information in new knowledge
communities,
-Knowledge as a shared asset and knowledge creation as collaboration,
rather than a commodity, and
-Using prizes rather than prices to stimulate drug development.

Thank you.


---------------------------------
Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
voice +41.22.791.6727
fax +41.22.723.2988
mobile +41 76 508 0997
thiru@keionline.org