WTO agenda

[James Love <love@cptech.org>]

The WTO ministerial meeting will be held around Dec 1 in Seattle this year, and all WTO member governments are gearing up for the meetings.  There is a big push on for
e-commerce, and IPR on the agenda.

I could (or others could) draft a letter that the UPD could send to the USTR, setting out the UPD priorities for the next round of the WTO negotiations on the TRIPS
agreement (the agreement on trade releated aspects of intellectual property).  

This is what I have recommended to to TACD, and maybe we could do something similar for UPD, perhaps stronger.



1.   A review of Aritcle 13 of the TRIPS dealing with
     copyright exceptions, to see if it should be expanded
     to more explicitly deal with issues such as fair use
     distance education, interoperability, etc.

2.   A statement that when implementing WIPO's digital 
     treaties, countries use mechanisms that are
     least intrusive to personal privacy.
    
3.   A request that the TRIPS review consider the issue
     of Business Practice Patents, and in particular,
     if countries should avoid issuing patents on
     business practices, particularly in terms of 
     those associated with electronic commerce that are
     unnecessary, anticompetitive and socially wasteful. 
 



-- 
James Love, Director, Consumer Project on Technology
I can be reached at love@cptech.org, by telephone 202.387.8030,
by fax at 202.234.5176. CPT web page is http://www.cptech.org