TWN Info Service on
Intellectual Property Issues (June 07/04)
21 June 2007
Please find below the first SUNS report on the WIPO Development Agenda
meeting held last week in WIPO and reproduced here with permission.
Best Wishes
Sangeeta Shashikant
Third World Network
Tel: +41 (0) 22 908 3550
Fax: +41 (0) 22 908 3551
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DEVELOPMENT AGENDA MEETING AGREES TO TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PROPOSALS
SUNS #6270 Wednesday 13 June 2007
Geneva, 12 June (Sangeeta Shashikant) -- A week-long meeting on the
Development Agenda at the World Intellectual Property Organisation
has produced initial results through an informal agreement on four
proposals on WIPO's technical assistance activities.
The second and final meeting this year on the Development Agenda is
taking place on 11-15 June at the Provisional Committee on Proposals
Related to a WIPO Development Agenda (PCDA).
The heated atmosphere of previous meetings when the Development Agenda
initiative started as a result of efforts by developing countries
has changed to a more business-like atmosphere at this meeting, as
the delegates attempt to finalise the whole set of proposals and to
prepare a report of recommendations for the WIPO General Assemblies
later this year.
Observers of the Development Agenda process note that major developed
countries for many meetings had strongly resisted the initiative led
by the Friends of Development Group. However, these countries now
seem to accept that the Development Agenda will become part of the
future agenda of WIPO, and they are trying to shape it by engaging
with the proponents.
Besides finalizing a list of proposals, this week's meeting is expected
to discuss the future institutional framework and the follow-up activities
for the Development Agenda, which would have to be reflected in the
report to the WIPO General Assembly. The report should contain "recommendations
for action on the agreed proposals, and on a framework for continuing
to address, and where possible, to move forward, on the other proposals
following the 2007 General Assembly".
This week's meeting began on Monday with opening plenary statements
by regional groupings and representatives of some NGOs. The official
meeting was then suspended and work continued through the informal
consultative process involving representatives of regional groupings
held in a small room.
The informal process is considering proposals for the Development
Agenda grouped in six clusters, with a regional grouping coordinating
one of the clusters. Cluster A is on Technical Assistance and Capacity
Building (coordinated by GRULAC); Cluster B on norm setting, flexibilities,
public policy and public domain (Africa Group); Cluster C on Technology
transfer, information and communication technology and access to knowledge
(Asian Group); Cluster D on Assessments, Evaluation and Impact Studies
(Central European and Baltic States); Cluster E on Institutional matters
including mandate and governance; and Cluster F on Other Issues (Caucasian,
Central Asian and Eastern European Group).
This week's meeting is discussing a set of proposals (that had mainly
been put forward by the Friends of Development Group) contained in
Annex B of the Committee's working document (PCDA/3/2). Another set
in Annex A has already been discussed in the Committee's earlier meeting
in February, and 24 of the 40 proposals had been adopted.
The informal consultation (which is chaired by Ambassador Trevor Clarke
of Barbados, who also chairs the PCDA) began work on Cluster A (Technical
Assistance and Capacity Building) and reached agreement on four proposals:
-- To assist Member States to develop and improve national IP institutional
capacity through further development of infrastructure and other facilities
with a view to making IP institutions more efficient and promote fair
balance between protection and the public interest. This technical
assistance should also be extended to sub-regional and regional organization
dealing with IP.
-- To assist Member States to strengthen national capacity for protection
of domestic creations, innovations and inventions and to support development
of national scientific and technological infrastructure, where appropriate,
in accordance with WIPO's mandate.
-- To further mainstream development considerations into WIPO's substantive
and technical assistance activities and debates, in accordance with
its mandate.
-- WIPO's legislative assistance shall be, inter alia, development-oriented
and demand driven, taking into account the priorities and the special
needs of developing countries, especially LDCs, as well as the different
levels of development of Member States
and activities should include time frames for completion.
The African group has also proposed a fifth proposal for WIPO to examine
TRIPS flexibilities and give advice to developing countries on how
to gain access to medicines and food. However, the language of this
proposal is still being negotiated.
There were originally 16 proposals under this Cluster. But Barbados (which
coordinated the cluster) said that the rest of the proposals would
not be pursued either because these were agreed to in February or
the proponents no longer wish to pursue the proposals, the proposal
has been dropped or the proposal has been reflected in other clusters.
Several developing countries are concerned with a number of questions,
as the week progresses: whether the agreed proposals in Annex A will
be reopened, the implementation of agreed proposals, the fora that
will discuss and monitor the implementation of the agreed proposals
and how to proceed with the proposals on which there is limited agreement.
The Algerian Ambassador Idriss Jazairy, on behalf of the African Group,
said that the "African Group considers the implementation phase
of the adopted recommendations as important, if not more important
than the negotiation process, hence the importance of establishing
an intergovernmental mechanism for the implementation of the recommendations
on Development Agenda which would ensure the required degree of efficiency
and transparency".
The Ambassador added that the outcome of the WIPO Development Agenda
"could include the adopted proposals, the framework to continue
the examination of the pending proposals, the implementation mechanism
along with the provisions on the relevant financial and human resources
which are necessary to bring this endeavour to a successful conclusion".
Argentina,
on behalf of the Group of Friends of Development, said that the proposals
agreed to in the meeting in February should not be reopened. Barbados,
on behalf of the Group of Latin American and Caribbean countries (GRULAC),
also said that a vast majority of the delegations were of the view
that Annex A should not be reopened.
It also recognized the "need to deal adequately with the institutional
framework, including the mandate, and the architectural mechanisms
for implementation and oversight of agreed recommendations".
It added that it is "open to discussing the early implementation
of self-executing recommendations".
Work on the proposals is expected to be finalized by Wednesday while
discussion on the draft report to the GA that will contain recommendations
is expected to be begin on Thursday, with the draft report being adopted
on Friday.
An informal meeting was held in Singapore
on 30 May-1 June (similar to a meeting held in Delhi preceding the first PCDA meeting) to prepare
for this week's meeting. In Singapore,
the African Group, the Group of Friends of Development and the Singapore government
each presented non-papers for discussion, although no formal negotiated
document was produced from the meeting.
In the Friends Group non-paper, 25 proposals were listed as proposals
that should emerge from this week's meeting. One of the proposals
was a proposal to "renew the mandate of the PCDA for 2 years
in order to review the implementation of the agreed recommendations
and to continue discussions of proposals that were not subject of
a decision in the 2006 General Assembly".
On Monday, the PCDA meeting started with opening statements. On behalf
of the African Group, Ambassador Jazairy of Algeria said that
the Development Agenda would allow promoting a well balanced international
IP system, which would be adapted to the needs of developing countries,
promoting research, the transfer of technology along with incentives
to innovate while truly acting as a catalyst in the growth process
in the countries concerned.
He said the tightening of intellectual property laws may be damaging
to developing countries, and the unilateral stretching of IP protection
and the continuous expansion of the level and scope of IP had the
most adverse effects on developing countries. This had proved to be
a burden on economic and social costs, thereby hampering the very
development of these countries.
Referring to the TRIPS Agreement, the Group said that IPRs adopted
in the globalization era had worsened the situation in developing
countries which required alignment with patent systems of the developed
countries, undermining the ability of developing countries to safeguard
interests as in health. These provisions eventually reduce the opportunities
of using the flexibilities and exceptions needed to safeguard public
interests such as health.
It wished that developing countries can take advantage of the same
flexibilities which the majority of developed countries enjoyed when
they were at the same development stage, adding that this is why the
IP regime should include provisions on respect for national policy
space. This policy space is "indispensable" since it is
about subscribing to international obligations, and since the countries
do not have the legal or technical instruments to face anti-competitive
trade related practices.
The Africa Group said that no IP system however reliable can ever
be sufficient to meet the development needs of disadvantaged countries.
IP norm setting should be governed by guidelines that counterbalance
IP protection with public access to knowledge and know-how.
Saying that the high cost of IPRs perpetuates the current imbalance
of learning and access to information, the Group called on WIPO to
play an active role in transfer of technology, and access to knowledge
enhanced through the extension of the public domain. The main goal
of the Development Agenda is to operationalise the development dimension
of IPRs.
Algeria
also called for wider participation of non-governmental organizations
in WIPO.
China
stressed that full consideration should be given to the different
levels of development of member states and called for "appropriate
policy space" for developing countries. It added that protection
of IP should be balanced with public interest protection and that
the protection of innovation be balanced with transfer of technology.
It also said that WIPO as a UN agency has the responsibility to provide
for an effective platform for developing countries and through pragmatic
efforts to ensure that developing countries really benefit from IP.
The US
said that the current framework in WIPO is sufficient to address development.
It added that WIPO should deepen its expertise on IP and not stray
away from it. It also said that efforts to weaken IP and to change
WIPO's mission would not be consistent with the Development Agenda.
