[Ip-health] WIPO patent committee resumes work on a positive agenda (March 2009)

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

http://www.keionline.org/blogs/2009/01/15/wipo-patent-committee-resumes-wor=
k-on-a-positive-agenda-march-2009/

WIPO patent committee resumes work on a positive agenda (March 2009)

The 13th session of the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Patents
(SCP) will take place from March 23, 2009 to March 27, 2009 in Geneva
at WIPO headquarters. The WIPO Report on the International Patent
System is the first substantive agenda item of the 13th session. This
228 page report covers topics ranging the gamut from patent pools,
open standards, the Medical R&D Treaty, exceptions and limitations to
patent rights, perceived threats to the effectiveness of patents as
incentives to innovation including litigation and patent thickets, and
the =93innovation incentive in the context of public policy objectives=94
for health, ethics, biological diversity and traditional knowledge.
This Report was first considered at the 12th session of the patent
committee in June 2008; Member States and Observers to the SCP were
permitted to provide written comments to the WIPO Secretariat on the
Report until 31 October 2008. These comments will be reflected in the
footnotes or annexes to the revised Report on the International System
up for consideration at the SCP in March.

     At its 12th session, the WIPO SCP

     asked the WIPO Secretariat to establish, for the next session of
the SCP, preliminary studies on four issues. These four issues, which
are not to be considered prioritized over the other issues contained
on the list referred to in paragraph 7, are the following:

     - Dissemination of patent information (inter alia the issue of a
database on search and examination reports);
     - Exceptions from patentable subject matter and limitations to
the rights, inter alia research exemption and compulsory licenses;
     - Patents and standards;
     - Client-attorney privilege;

Another output of the patent committee deliberations was the decision
to convene a=94Conference on Intellectual Property and Global
Challenges=94 which will be held on July 13 and 14,2009, at the
International Conference Centre in Geneva (CICG). The Conference will
address issues relating to the interface of intellectual property with
other areas of public policy, notably health, the environment, climate
change, food security and disability.

These preliminary studies on patents and standards, exceptions from
patentable subject matter and limitations to the rights, inter alia
research exemption and compulsory licenses, client-attorney privilege
and the dissemination of patent information are expected to be made
available by the WIPO Secretariat in February 2009; these studies be
discussed as agenda item 5 at the 13th session of the SCP.

These four issues on the agenda for March are among a broader list of
non-exhaustive issues the patent committee is tasked to examine in its
future work.

Here below is the Annex to the Summary by the Chair which lists the
eighteen non-exhaustive list of issues for further elaboration and
discussion in the future. This list includes such topics as =93Economic
impact of the patent system, Alternative models for innovation,
Patents and health (including exhaustion, the Doha Declaration and
other WTO instruments, patent landscaping) and Relation of patents
with other public policy issues.=94

LIST OF ISSUES

(in the order of their appearance in document SCP/12/3)

Economic impact of the patent system

Transfer of technology

Competition policy and anti-competitive practices

Dissemination of patent information (including the registration of
licenses)

Standards and patents

Alternative models for innovation

Harmonization of basic notions of substantive patentability
requirements (e.g. prior art, novelty, inventive step, industrial
applicability, disclosure)

Disclosure of inventions

Database on search and examination reports

Opposition system

Exceptions from patentable subject matter

Limitations to the rights

Research exemption

Compulsory licenses

Client-attorney privilege

Patents and health (including exhaustion, the Doha Declaration and
other WTO instruments, patent landscaping)

Relationship between the patent system and the CBD (Genetic resources/
Traditional knowledge/disclosure of origin)

Relation of patents with other public policy issues

[End of Annex and of document]


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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