[Ecommerce] FT: Wipo to heed concerns of poor

[Manon Ress]

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/e75381b4-166b-11d9-b835-00000e2511c8.html

Wipo to heed concerns of poor
By Frances Williams in Geneva
Published: October 5 2004 03:00 | Last updated: October 5 2004 03:00

Supporters of a "devel-opment agenda" in talks on international patents
and copyrights claimed progress yesterday with an agreement by the World
Intellectual Property Organisation to discuss ways of strengthening
responses to development concerns.
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The proposal for a development agenda, spearheaded by Argentina and
Brazil, came after poorer countries complained their interests were
being sidelined.

"The issue has been discussed for the first time in Wipo and it is now
firmly on the agenda," one Latin American diplomat said.

Developing countries say Wipo gives undue priority to higher protection
for intellectual property - such as patents, copyrights and trademarks -
at the behest of its richer members, and does not pay enough attention
to ensuring intellectual property rules serve development and the public
interest.

Industrialised countries argued Wipo was already responding to
development needs. "We all agree that intellectual property should
support economic, social and cultural development," one delegate said.
"The question is how - and that's what we're going to discuss."

The development agenda proposal, which won wide backing from poorer
members, included negotiation of a Wipo treaty to promote
developing-country access to knowledge and technology and a change in
Wipo's constitution to emphasise development concerns.

Further support for the Brazil/Argentina proposal came last week in a
declaration signed by 500 scientists, academics, legal experts and
consumer advocates, including two Nobel laureates. It called for a
moratorium on Wipo negotiations aimed at raising intellectual property
standards until development needs were considered.

A move by the US, Japan and the European Union to put certain patent law
reforms on a fast track was defeated, as was a Wipo secretariat request
to increase filing fees for international patents. www.wipo.int

--
Manon Anne Ress
Consumer Project on Technology
www.cptech.org
PO Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
manon.ress@cptech.org, voice: 1.202.387.8030, fax: 1.202.234.5176