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14
April 2005
Battle Over the Future of WIPO: First and Third World Clash on Development Agenda On the morning of 11 April
2005 the Member Countries of the World Intellectual Property
Organization (WIPO) voted to accredit an additional 17 Non-Governmental
Organizations (NGOs) (including IP Justice) to participate in the
Development Agenda meetings, set to begin that day in Geneva. Led
by Brazil and Argentina, the Development Agenda was adopted last year
by the WIPO General Assembly to refocus WIPO's work away from
continuously increasing rightholder privileges at the expense of the
public interest. Rather than WIPO's current "one-size-fits-all"
approach to intellectual property, the Development Agenda pleas for
recognition of the differing needs of nations in different stages of
development.
The 11-13 April 2005 meetings dealt with several proposals from Member States on how to address WIPO's mandate under the Development Agenda. The most widely supported proposal came from a group of 14 countries, the "Friends of Development" (FoD) and challenged WIPO's underlying philosophy and management. It elaborated further on the concerns raised in the original proposal adopted last fall by the General Assembly. The FoD proposal calls for a fundamental review of WIPO's overall mandate and governance structure. It asks WIPO to adopt pro-development norm-setting standards. The FoD proposal suggests principles and guidelines for WIPO's technical assistance program. And it suggests guidelines for technology transfer and competition policy work at WIPO. The FoD proposal calls on WIPO to live up its role as a United Nations specialized agency by promoting the public interest and development concerns in all WIPO activities. In contrast, the US proposed that WIPO should only undertake development concerns narrowly as part of its technical assistance work, and without any major changes at WIPO. The United Kingdom submitted a strategy proposal that recalled the 2002 report of the UK Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, which had requested that the WIPO Secretariat examine the impact of its work on the needs of developing countries. The UK paper did not, however, call for any specific changes at this time. At the conclusion of the meeting, WIPO member states decided to hold two more meetings to discuss substantive issues regarding a Development Agenda at WIPO before the July completion of a report that will go to WIPO's General Assembly in September 2005. The meetings were scheduled for June 20-22 and three days yet to be specified in July in Geneva. More Information on the April 11-13, 2005 Development Agenda Meeting: CPTech IP-Watch Media Trade Monitor WIPO Page on Meetings "Friends of Development" Proposal From 14 Countries to Elaborate on Development Agenda NGO Group Request for Reconsideration on Accreditation for Development Agenda Meetings (29 March 2005) IP Justice is an international civil
liberties organization that promotes balanced intellectual property
laws. IP Justice defends consumer rights to use digital media
worldwide
and is a non-profit organization based in San Francisco. IP
Justice was
founded in 2002 by Robin Gross, who serves as its Executive
Director.
To learn more about IP Justice, visit the website at http://www.ipjustice.org.
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