[A2k] Balanced agenda reached at the conclusion of WIPO patent committee

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

http://www.keionline.org/blogs/2009/03/30/balanced-agenda-reached-at-the-co=
nclusion-of-wipo-patent-committee/

Balanced agenda reached at the conclusion of WIPO patent committee
By thiru, on March 30th, 2009

The Summary by the Chair of the WIPO Standing Committee Committee on
the Law of Patents=92 (SCP) Thirteenth Session which took place in
Geneva from March 23, 2009 to March 27, 2009 has been posted on the
WIPO website.

The Fourteenth Session of the WIPO SCP will be held from November 9 to
November 12, 2009 in Geneva. The four agenda items discussed at last
week=92s SCP: 1) Standards and Patents, 2) Exclusions from Patentable
Subject Matter and Exceptions and Limitations to the Rights, 3) The
Client-Attorney Privilege and 4) Dissemination of Patent Information
will remain on the agenda. Consequently, WIPO Member States and
Observers will have a second chance to tackle these issues in greater
depth in their future deliberations at the next patent committee in
November 2009. In addition, the Secretariat will produce two further
preliminary papers on 1) Transfer of Technology and 2) Opposition
Systems for the next meeting for the Committee=92s consideration.

Of particular interest is the Committee=92s instructions to the WIPO
Secretariat to commission external experts to produce a =93study on
exclusions, exceptions and limitations focused on, but not limited to,
issues suggested by Members, such as public health, education,
research and experimentation and patentability of life forms,
including from a public policy, socio-economic developmental
perspective, bearing in mind the level of economic development=94. It
should also be noted that the SCP decided to add two new issues to the
non-exhaustive list of issues for examination namely =93patents and the
environment, with a particular attention to climate change and
alternative sources of energy=94, as well as =93patent quality management
systems=94

Here below is the portion of the Summary of the Chair detailing the
patent committee=92s future work.

     9. Following a proposal by the Chair, the Committee

     (a) reaffirmed that the non-exhaustive list of issues identified
at the twelfth session of the SCP held in June 2008 would remain open
for further elaboration and discussion at its next session, and
decided to include two further issues in the list, namely =93patents and
the environment, with a particular attention to climate change and
alternative sources of energy=94, as well as =93patent quality management
systems=941;

     (b) agreed that documents SCP/13/2, 3, 4 and 5 would remain open
for further discussion and comments at the next session of the SCP;

     (c) decided that five studies will be prepared as follows, taking
into account interventions of Members:
     (i) the Secretariat will commission external experts a study on
exclusions, exceptions and limitations focused on, but not limited to,
issues suggested by Members, such as public health, education,
research and experimentation and patentability of life forms,
including from a public policy, socio-economic developmental
perspective, bearing in mind the level of economic development;

     (ii) the Secretariat will prepare a concept paper on technical
solutions to improve greater access to, and dissemination of, patent
information;

     (iii) the Secretariat will expand the preliminary study on the
client-attorney privilege (document SCP/13/4), to reflect the current
state of play in this area, taking into account perspective of various
stakeholders and using external experts, if necessary;

     (iv) the Secretariat will establish preliminary studies on the
two following additional topics contained in the non-exhaustive list
of issues agreed at the 12th session of the SCP: =93Transfer of
Technology=94 and =93Opposition Systems=94.

     (d) The Secretariat will hold presentations of the studies at the
beginning of the next meeting.

     (e) Several delegations expressed the importance of engagement in
the work of the Committee, and in so doing underlined the need for the
studies prepared to be available in all official UN languages. The
Committee requested the Secretariat to produce the cost estimates of
translating the studies.

     10. The International Bureau informed the SCP that its fourteenth
session was tentatively scheduled to be held from November 9 to 13,
2009, in Geneva.

11. The SCP noted that the present document was a summary established
under the responsibility of the Chair and that the official record
would be contained in the report of the session. The report would
reflect all the interventions made during the meeting, and would be
adopted in accordance with the procedure agreed by the SCP at its
fourth session (see document SCP/4/6, paragraph 11), which provided
for the members of the SCP to comment on the draft report made
available on the SCP Electronic Forum. The Committee would then be
invited to adopt the draft report, including the comments received, at
its following session.

     12. The SCP noted the contents of this summary by the Chair.

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Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
thiru@keionline.org


Tel: +41 22 791 6727
Mobile: +41 76 508 0997