[A2k] KEI Statement at beginning of WIPO SCP

[James Love]

http://www.keionline.org/index.php?option=3Dcom_content&task=3Dview&id=3D18=
5

KEI Statement at beginning of WIPO SCP

Today (Monday June 23, 2008) is the beginning of a five day meeting of
the WIPO Standing Committee on Patents.  The SCP has not met since April
2006.   This week it will consider a new WIPO agenda on patents.  In one
encouraging move, the SCP has elected the well informed and highly
regarded Maximiliano Santa Cruz from Chile as its new chair.   Below is
the KEI statement from Monday, June 23, 2008.


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KEI Statement at WIPO Standing Committee on Patents

June 23, 2008


Thank you Mr. President. As this is the first time Knowledge Ecology
International is taking the floor, we would like to congratulate you
upon your election to the chair.

The WIPO "Report on the International Patent System=E2=80=9D ("Report on th=
e
International Patent System," WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of
Patents, 12th Session (SCP/12/3) Apr 15, 2008.) is a very useful
document when considering a new work program for the SCP.  This work
should involve three levels of engagement:

1. Gathering information and evidence on state practice, including
better data on the relationship between patent policies, practices and
outcomes;

2. Analysis of challenges facing the global patent system, including
economic analysis; and

3. Norm-setting.

The focus should be on areas of pressing concern and emerging issues,
and should include consideration of the newest ideas for innovation in
the patent system.

Among the pressing concerns and emerging issues are the following:

1. Medical Innovation and Access (I+A), including implementation of the
Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health and the new WHO Global
Strategy on Public Health and Innovation.

2. Addressing the problems of low patent quality, leading to costly
litigation, anticompetitive practices and drags on innovation.

3. Challenges of managing patents on standards.

4. The relationship between the patent system and climate change.

With regard to the issue of standards, WIPO should consider if the
current systems of providing constructive notice regarding patent status
to standards making bodies is working well in a global economy.  WIPO
should also consider whether or not it can play a potential role  by
providing global disclosures of proposed standards, and if future
norm-setting activities might include an instrument on patents and
standards that would address both the issue of disclosure and remedies
to non-disclosure, not only for members of standards-making
organizations, but extending to third parties as well.

With regard to the issue of innovation and access to medical
technologies, WIPO should begin by gathering information on:

1. Implementation of Paragraph 7 of the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and
Public Health, regarding patents in LDCs,

2. The use of compulsory licensing in both developed and developing
economies,

3. The extent to which countries use exhaustion of rights to allow
parallel trade in medicines,

4. The methods of implementing Paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration, and

5. The use of Article 44 of the TRIPS Agreement to allow uses of patents
on medical technologies.

In the area of patent quality, WIPO should also consider gathering
statistics and creating a database of challenges to patent validity, so
that it is easier for residents of one country to learn about a patent
validity dispute in another country, and possibility to even consider
patent reexamination when claims are overturned in another country.

Finally, WIPO should consider the variety of measures being promoted to
introduce approaches to patent rights that focus on remuneration rights
rather than exclusive rights, drawing upon research on innovation
inducement prizes, liability rules for patents on standards, and the
recent eBay decision in the United States.