[A2k] WIPO GA, September 23, 2009
Malini Aisola
malini.aisola@keionline.org
Wed Sep 23 18:10:02 2009
http://keionline.org/node/595
WIPO GA, September 23, 2009
By James Love
This is a semi-live blog that will be edited during the day.
It's Wed, September 23rd, and WIPO is winding up a relatively boring two
days of a high level Ministerial segment. Many delegates felt this was
poorly organized, with notices going out fairly late, and not much
preliminary work or focus. Tomorrow begins the more substantive agenda.
This week the GA is being chaired by Ambassador Alberto Juan Dumont.
Ambassador Dumont may leave before the meeting is over, and if so, Yesim
Baykal will apparently take over as the GA Vice Chair. Baykal is a
Geneva based legal advisor for the Turkey mission.
Francis Gurry's speech on Tuesday [1] drew mixed reviews. Sisule Musungu
thought his comments on counterfeiting were helpful, because he clearly
indicated that counterfeiting is about fake products, and "deliberate,
large-scale imitation of brands, identity and trade dress," but not
legitimate generic products or all alleged infringements:
Counterfeiting is not a North-South problem, but a problem of
globalization - of open markets, good transportation systems and
the free movement of persons, goods and capital. Let me be clear
that, by counterfeiting, I mean the deliberate, large-scale
imitation of brands, identity and trade dress. I certainly do
not mean generic pharmaceutical products, which have their
legitimate place within the competitive and regulated market for
pharmaceuticals. Counterfeit means fake and deceptive. It
affects high technology, low technology, luxury goods,
handicrafts, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, spare parts and
artifacts of traditional cultural systems =E2=80=93 in short, the w=
hole
of human production =E2=80=93 and it affects and originates from al=
l
countries. I hope that we can move gradually as an Organization
to a dialogue on ways and means of dealing in a practical way
with the misuse of intellectual property to sell fake products.
With regard to the problems of persons with reading disabilities, the
Gurry Speech said:
Following the entry into force of the Convention on the Rights
of Disabled Persons, a Stakeholders=E2=80=99 Platform has been
established and a treaty proposal has been tabled on access to
published works on the part of the visually impaired.
However, the WBU noticed the WIPO Secretariat press release [2] reported
only the reference to the stakeholder's platform.
Mr. Gurry also referred to the establishment of the
stakeholder=E2=80=99s platform to improve access to published works=
by
the visually impaired.
The broader SCCR work program on limitations and exceptions was not
mentioned, and on the topic of climate change, Gurry's statements were
hardly neutral considering the nature of global negotiations on this
topic.
Today the UK intellectual property office hosted a lunch meeting of
civil society NGOs, which I attended. The UK IP office said it had
complained frequently of the secrecy of the ACTA negotiations. The UK IP
office said it had no official position on whether or not a treaty was
needed to facilitate the cross border sharing of accessible works for
persons who are blind or have other reading disabilities, a comment that
stimulated critical discussion from NGOs. One NGO said it was incredible
that something so "easy" as this could not generate support. On a
different topic, we encouraged the UK to support work within the SCP on
the research exception for patents, and issues related to patents on
standards, as two topics that could potentially benefit from global norm
setting. On the issue of access to medicine, KEI said that the longer
run sustainable solution to access was linked to consensus on the
appropriate developing country contributions to R&D costs. In this
respect, the UK was asked by KEI to look WHO EWG programs on the Cancer
[3] and Donor Prize [4] funds.
Back now at WIPO, and Group B is speaking. With regard to persons with
reading disabilities, they stressed the importance of finding a
solution, but did not mention the stakeholder platform or the treaty. I
had expected Group B to only mention the stakeholder platform, so this
seen as some positive movement.
A big talking point for WIPO and several countries this week is the
patent application backlog, which is being discussed in connection with
proposals to encourage the sharing of patent searches, and other
elements of examinations.
WIPO is now hearing a series of statements by regional groups. I wish
they would also post the detailed text on the web page.
I have not been focused all day on the proceedings inside the main room,
but I was told the U.S. government asked for the floor to read a general
statement, but then decided against doing so. I have asked the U.S.
government for a copy of the Group B statement.
The EU told me this afternoon that "there is no proposal" on the
broadcast treaty, but they "will make a statement" in support of the
treaty. There is a draft, but I can't see it.
Among the country statements I did catch was a very nice statement by
Malaysia on the topic of a treaty for persons who are blind or have
other reading disabilities. I wish at least one Group B country could
find the decency to make even half as a good a statement.
On the way out of the room, I picked up a flyer for a new academic
journal with the name "The WIPO Journal [5]." It is a Thomson/Reuters
journal, edited by Peter K. Yu, with a well known international
editorial board. According to the flyer, it's 50 euros, for 2 issues a
year.
Links:
[1] http://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/2009/a_47/a47_dg_speech.html
[2] http://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/articles/2009/article_0036.html
[3] http://www.who.int/phi/Bangladesh_Bolivia_Suriname_CancerPrize.pdf
[4]
http://www.who.int/phi/Bangladesh_Barbados_Bolivia_Suriname_DonorPrize.pdf
[5] http://www.sweetandmaxwell.co.uk/wipojournal/
--
Malini Aisola
Knowledge Ecology International
1621 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 500, Washington DC 20009
malini.aisola@keionline.org|Tel: +1.202.332.2670|Fax: +1.202.332.2673