[A2k] Bridges Weekly: WIPO members agree on a development agenda

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

<SNIP>

Civil society groups expressed delight with an outcome that seemed
unfeasible not long ago. James Love, director of Knowledge Ecology
International, welcomed "a meaningful and welcome new vision for WIPO"
that promised to consider "a range of topics, including measures to
protect or promote access to knowledge, the implications and benefits
of a rich and accessible public domain, and strategies for dealing with
abuses of rights, or other measures to protect the public interest."
Though compromise was reached by watering down much of the final text,
it was important to introduce concepts that WIPO had never broached
before, a developing country official said.

Tom Goodwin, UK delegate, said that whilst the outcome does not give
WIPO a new mandate, it "sets out a clear message from members, to each
other and the secretariat, as to how they want that mandate executed on
IP and development." He noted that members had affirmed the validity of
development concerns relating to IP and had recognised that WIPO needed
strategies to address what he termed "an emerging area."

Goodwin also praised the efforts made by developed and developing
country members alike, in their preparation and willingness to engage
both before and during the official sessions. Informal meetings in
Delhi in February and Singapore earlier this month had "focussed people
and helped to get ideas in order ahead of time." The tenor of exchanges
between the Friends of Development and the Group B industrialised
countries had improved markedly. "Trust was an ingredient in the
success of the PCDA that had perhaps been lacking before," he said.

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http://www.ictsd.org/weekly/07-06-20/story1.htm

Volume 11 	Number 22 	20 June 2007

WIPO MEMBERS AGREE ON DEVELOPMENT AGENDA

Members of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) last
week reached an agreement on recommendations for reforms aimed at
ensuring that development concerns are placed at the heart of the work
of the UN agency.

In the fourth and final session of the committee dealing with the
'development agenda' talks, held in Geneva from 11-15 June,
representatives from over 100 governments successfully negotiated a
series of proposals to forward to the 2007 General Assembly, WIPO's top
decision-making body. They also agreed to create a new Committee on
Development and Intellectual Property.

Many delegates praised the continuation of a cooperative spirit from
the previous session of the Provisional Committee on Proposals Related
to a WIPO Development Agenda (PCDA) in February, where they had managed
to agree on a set of initial recommendations. A developing country
delegate said a "good mood" prevailed last week, with all members
"flexible and constructive towards an outcome." That the 111 reform
proposals submitted by governments over the past two and a half years
had been digested into agreed and workable recommendations was widely
seen as a giant step forward from the deep divisions a year ago (see
BRIDGES Weekly, 5 July 2006,
http://www.ictsd.org/weekly/06-07-05/story1.htm).

The recommendations address controversial subjects including WIPO's
provision of technical assistance, as well as broadening the
organisation's focus on issues such as public domain, competition, and
access to knowledge. However, the US released a statement following the
conclusion of the meeting stating that whilst the proposals "reinforce
WIPO's commitment to the needs of developing countries" they also
"reaffirm WIPO's clear mandate as the specialised UN agency that
promotes the protection of intellectual property worldwide."

An African delegate described the accord as "a breakthrough by all
standards [that] really reflects the level of conviction among all
member states on the need to address the existing imbalance between
intellectual property rights and the public interest."

Brazil and Argentina originally proposed a Development Agenda for WIPO
at the 2004 General Assembly (WO/GA/31/11). They have been joined by 13
other countries - Bolivia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt,
Iran, Kenya, Peru, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Uruguay, and
Venezuela - to form a group dubbed the 'Friends of Development' (see
BRIDGES Weekly, 6 October 2004,
http://www.ictsd.org/weekly/04-10-06/story1.htm). The 2005 General
Assembly created the PCDA and charged it with drawing together a
cohesive package from the 111 proposals. The committee's mandate was
extended for a further year in 2006 after members were unable to make
meaningful progress.

Meeting focused on the toughest proposals

The PCDA's final session last week had the task of working through 71
proposals towards an outcome document that could be forwarded to the
General Assembly. These proposals were what remained after the
committee's February meeting, when delegates boiled down 40 of the 111
proposals into 24 recommendations (see BRIDGES Weekly, 28 February
2007, http://www.ictsd.org/weekly/07-02-28/story1.htm). However, the
current set of proposals, contained in 'Annex B' of a working document
prepared by previous General Assembly Chair Ambassador Manalo
(Philippines), addressed more controversial issues, such as access to
knowledge, competition, and collaborative innovation models.

A developed country delegate said that expectations had been surpassed
in finding agreement on all aspects of Annex B.

Chairman Clarke guides process with informal sessions

PCDA Chair Ambassador Trevor Clarke (Barbados) continued the 'green
room' process - informal negotiations limited to the regional
coordinators and a representative selection of key delegations - that
had facilitated the breakthrough in February. Clarke had aimed to
finish discussing the substantive proposals by mid-week to allow two
days to discuss their implementation. However, substantive discussions
continued until the final day, with implementation issues receiving
attention only at the end; the final plenary accordingly concluded at
10pm. For the rest of the week, plenary sessions were short and spare,
with most time invested in regional group sessions and the green room
process.

The proposals in Annex B were divided into five issue clusters on
technical assistance; norm setting, flexibilities, public policy, and
public domain; technology transfer, information technology, and access
to knowledge; evaluation; and institutional matters including mandate
and governance. A sixth, on 'other issues' present in Manalo's paper,
was incorporated into the preamble of the final recommendations. Each
cluster was assigned to a different regional group; the coordinators
were then tasked with preparing draft proposals in advance of the PCDA.
These then became the basis of negotiations in the green room sessions.

The preamble of the text setting out the recommendations calls for the
immediate establishment of a WIPO "Committee on IP and Development."
The institution's inconsequential Permanent Committee on Cooperation
for Development Related to Intellectual Property (PCIPD), into which
the US and other Group B (industrialised) countries have previously
sought to push the Development Agenda, will cease to exist. The Friends
of Development were wary that locating their concerns in the PCIPD
would marginalise their objective of mainstreaming development into all
of WIPO's activities. The PCDA's work is complete, but a final one-day
meeting will be held prior to the General Assembly in September to
approve the Chair's report and a list of proposals for immediate
implementation.

Civil society groups expressed delight with an outcome that seemed
unfeasible not long ago. James Love, director of Knowledge Ecology
International, welcomed "a meaningful and welcome new vision for WIPO"
that promised to consider "a range of topics, including measures to
protect or promote access to knowledge, the implications and benefits
of a rich and accessible public domain, and strategies for dealing with
abuses of rights, or other measures to protect the public interest."
Though compromise was reached by watering down much of the final text,
it was important to introduce concepts that WIPO had never broached
before, a developing country official said.

Tom Goodwin, UK delegate, said that whilst the outcome does not give
WIPO a new mandate, it "sets out a clear message from members, to each
other and the secretariat, as to how they want that mandate executed on
IP and development." He noted that members had affirmed the validity of
development concerns relating to IP and had recognised that WIPO needed
strategies to address what he termed "an emerging area."

Goodwin also praised the efforts made by developed and developing
country members alike, in their preparation and willingness to engage
both before and during the official sessions. Informal meetings in
Delhi in February and Singapore earlier this month had "focussed people
and helped to get ideas in order ahead of time." The tenor of exchanges
between the Friends of Development and the Group B industrialised
countries had improved markedly. "Trust was an ingredient in the
success of the PCDA that had perhaps been lacking before," he said.

Immediately after the accord, members got an early indication of the
difficult work ahead for WIPO and its new Committee on IP and
Development. In particular, the US renewed its calls for "ambitious
plans for substantive patent law harmonisation," progress on which has
been linked to the development agenda negotiations. Developing
countries have generally been wary of attempts to harmonise patent
rules.

ICTSD reporting; "WIPO Committee Reaches Breakthrough Agreements On
Development Agenda," INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY WATCH, 15 June 2007.

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