[Ip-health] Deadlock at 14th session of the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP)

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

http://keionline.org/node/776

Deadlock at 14th session of the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of
Patents (SCP)
By thiru
Created 29 Jan 2010 - 2:33pm

After a around 10 hours of informal consultations today, it appears
that the 14th session of the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of
Patents (SCP) has not reached consensus on new items for the
Committee's consideration. From sources close to the negotiation, much
of the wrangling dealt with whether to preserve the non-exhaustive
nature of the list of issues identified at SCP 12 and SCP 13. During
the informals in rooms inaccessible to NGO observers, there was a
contentious debate on non-exhaustive versus exhaustive in respect of
the pipeline of 22 items for consideration by the patent committee
(reproduced at the end of this piece).

At 7:18 PM Central European Time, a text entitled "Summary by the
Chair" (SCP/14/9) was handed out. The following paragraph reproduced
in full is what the summary of the chair states about Future Work:

     10. Following a proposal by the Chair, the Committee agreed to
carry on discussions at its next session on the basis of the agenda of
its fourteenth session. Item 7(b) of that agenda will include the
study by external experts on exclusions, exceptions and limitations,
as well as the proposal by the Delegation of Brazil on exceptions and
limitations to patent rights contained in document SCP/14/7. Member
States may submit proposals on the work of the Committee prior to its
next session.

The practical effect of this text means that the following 6 items
will be maintained on the agenda of SCP 15 to be held from October 11
to 15, 2010 in Geneva:

    1. Standards and Patents
    2. Exclusions from Patentable Subject Matter and Exceptions and
Limitations to the Rights
    3. The Client-Attorney Privilege
    4. Dissemination of Patent Information
    5. Transfer of Technology
    6. Opposition Systems

Another document (SCP/14/INF/2) describes the Terms of Reference for
the "External Experts' Study Regarding Exclusions, Exceptions and
Limitations for the Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP)".
The coordinator will be Lionel Bently (Cambridge) and the 5 other
experts include: 1) Denis Barbosa, 2) Shamnad Basheer, 3) Richard
Gold, 4) Brad Sherman and 5) Coenraad Visser. The mandate of this
study by external experts is based from the language of SCP/13/7,
paragraph 9(c)(i) which decided that 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"

What to expect from SCP 15?

One could anticipate that Member States and Observers will redouble
their efforts in the Committee's October consideration of 1) Standards
and Patents, 2) Exclusions from Patentable Subject Matter and
Exceptions and Limitations to the Rights, 3)The Client-Attorney
Privilege, 4) Dissemination of Patent Information, 5) Transfer of
Technology and 6) Opposition Systems.

In terms of limitations and exceptions, 2 significant points of
interest will be the Committee's October consideration of Brazil's
proposal for a work program for limitations and exceptions to patent
rights and the Committee's October consideration of the "External
Experts' Study Regarding Exclusions, Exceptions and Limitations for
the Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP)".

The Chair, Maximiliano Santa Cruz (Chile), closed the meeting at
8:14PM Central European time.

LIST OF ISSUES

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
Patent quality management systems
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
Patents and the environment, with a particular attention to climate
change and alternative sources of energy
Patent quality management systems


------------------------------------------------------------


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


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