[Ip-health] Indiainfoline: Intellectual property...India pitches for a development agenda

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

http://www.indiainfoline.com/news/innernews.asp?storyId=16599&lmn=1


*Intellectual property...India pitches for a development agenda*

*India Infoline News Service / Mumbai Sep 30, 2006 11:29*

*Dr. Ajay Dua, Secy, Dept of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Ministry of
Commerce & Industry, has made a strong pitch to revive the dialogue on
mainstreaming development into the entire agenda of the organization*

The Indian delegation to the General Assembly of the World Intellectual
Property Organisation (WIPO), a UN body responsible for intellectual
property matters, led by Dr. Ajay Dua, Secretary, Department of
Industrial Policy & Promotion, Ministry of Commerce & Industry,
Government of India, has made a strong pitch to revive the dialogue on
mainstreaming development into the entire agenda of the organization.
Hitherto, its emphasis has been on harmonization and norm setting of IP
laws and implementation-cum- enforcement related matters.

The 42nd General Assembly of WIPO is currently meeting in Geneva in a
week-long session to take stock of IPR related developments around the
world. Almost all the 183 member countries are participating in it along
with a number of observers, NGOs and inter-governmental organizations.
In the Statement made on behalf of India, Dr. Dua had emphasized that
the deliberations in WIPO need to make substantial headway, lest issues
falling within its domain get deliberated bilaterally between nations or
negotiated in other international fora. It has not been able to develop
consensus within WIPO on a number of contentious issues such as Patent
Law harmonization, evolving a Development Agenda, protection of
traditional knowledge and related genetic resources as well as on rights
of broadcasting organizations.

India has been strongly emphasizing a Development Agenda at the Doha
round of WTO negotiations led by Kamal Nath, the Minister for Commerce &
Industry. Reiterating this in WIPO is consistent with this position.
While stressing this, the Indian approach at WIPO has been widely
interpreted as a constructive measure to bridge the gap and break a
virtual impasse on account of rigid positions taken up by Group B
countries, i.e. the developed countries and certain developing
countries. India has also been spearheading the efforts for evolving
measures at the international level to protect traditional knowledge
from being misappropriated.