TWN Info Service on
Intellectual Property Issues (June 07/05)
21 June 2007
Please find below the second 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
-----------------------------------------------------------
PROPOSALS ON "NORM-SETTING" INFORMALLY AGREED TO
SUNS #6272 Friday 15 June 2007
Geneva, 14 June (Sangeeta Shashikant) -- An informal meeting at the
session on the WIPO Development Agenda has agreed on seven draft proposals
on perhaps the most sensitive of its clusters of issues - Norm-setting,
Flexibilities, Public Policy and Public Domain (Cluster B).
Agreement on the proposals was reached in an informal small group
chaired by Ambassador Trevor Clarke of Barbados,
who is also chair of the formal WIPO session. It will come before
the formal plenary for further discussion and adoption.
Countries in the informal group include Bangladesh, India, Pakistan,
Korea, Singapore, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Barbados, Mexico,
Chile, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, US, Switzerland,
Germany and Australia.
According to a diplomat, negotiations on this cluster were expected
to be the "most controversial" which is why this item took
a whole day of discussion. However, the delegate added that despite
the controversy and difficulties in negotiating Cluster B, there was
no "animosity" in the room.
The group on Thursday discussed proposals on Assessments, Evaluation
and Impact Studies (Cluster D), and difficulties also arose during
negotiations on this item.
According to diplomats, developed countries in Group B were especially
opposed to a proposal to establish an independent development impact
assessment capability within WIPO with respect to technical assistance,
technology transfer and norm-setting.
The proposal added that this could evolve towards an independent WIPO
Evaluation and Research Office (WERO) that would be responsible for,
inter alia, evaluation of all WIPO's programs and activities and carrying
out of Development Impact Assessments in norm-setting activities,
and technical cooperation.
The draft proposals agreed to in Cluster B on norm setting, flexibilities,
public policy and public domain are:
1. In its activities, including norm-setting, WIPO should take into
account the flexibilities in international IP agreements, especially
those which are of interest to developing countries and LDCs.
2. To urge the IGC to accelerate the process on the protection of
genetic resources, traditional knowledge and folklore, without prejudice
to any outcome, including the possible development of an international
instrument or instruments.
3. To initiate discussions on how, within WIPO's mandate, to further
facilitate access to knowledge and technology for developing countries
and LDCs to foster creativity and innovation and to strengthen such
existing activities within WIPO.
4. To promote norm-setting activities related to IP that support a
robust public domain in WIPO's Member States, including the possibility
of preparing guidelines which could assist interested Member States
in identifying subject matters that have fallen into the public domain
within their respective jurisdictions.
5. WIPO shall conduct informal, open and balanced consultations, as
appropriate, prior to any new norm-setting activities, through a member-driven
process, promoting the participation of experts from Member States,
particularly developing countries and LDCs.
6. WIPO's norm-setting activities should be supportive of the development
goals agreed within the UN system, including those contained in the
Millennium Declaration.
The WIPO Secretariat, without prejudice to the outcome of Member States'
considerations, should address in its working documents for norm-setting
activities, as appropriate and as directed by Member States, issues
such as:
(a) safeguarding national implementation of intellectual property
rules;
(b) links between IP and competition;
(c) IP-related transfer of technology;
(d) potential flexibilities, exceptions and limitations for Member
States; and
(e) the possibility of additional special provisions for developing
countries and LDCs.
7. To consider how to better promote pro-competitive IP licensing
practices, particularly with a view to fostering creativity, innovation
and the transfer and dissemination of technology to interested countries,
in particular developing countries and LDCs.
A hotly contested issue in the Cluster B discussion was "access
to knowledge". The initial proposals on this were to elaborate
a mechanism to facilitate access to knowledge and technology for developing
and least developed countries and to establish a Treaty on Access
to Knowledge and Technology.
These proposals had already been diluted when it reached the informal
group this week. However, the developed countries (Group B) still
objected to the use of the phrase "access to knowledge."
The US proposed to replace "knowledge"
with "information".
James Love, director of the US-based Knowledge Ecology International,
reported in a blog-site that Canada said that it didn't understand
what "access to knowledge" meant.
According to Love, "the UK
indicated that there was a sentiment by many countries that while
WIPO could discuss measures that would make access to knowledge hard,
such as tough new digital copyright laws, it shouldn't discuss proposals,
like a treaty to provide minimum access to works by libraries, teachers
and the blind, which would expand access."
However, the phrase "access to knowledge" received unanimous
support from developing countries in the room, making it difficult
for Group B to maintain its position.
According to a diplomat, Group B finally gave way and agreed to that
term (used in proposal 3 above) especially as developing countries
highlighted that they were already very flexible and had significantly
moved away from their earlier position.
Another contested issue concerned the principles for setting norms.
The final text is much diluted from the original proposal of the Group
of Friends of Development.
The original proposal was: "To include in treaties and norms
provisions on, inter alia
(a) objectives and principles;
(b) safeguard of national implementation of IP rules;
(c) against anti-competitive practices and abuse of monopoly rights;
(d) promotion of transfer of technology; (e) longer compliance periods;
(f) flexibilities and "policy space" for the pursuit of
public policies;
(g) exceptions and limitations."
The initial reaction by Group B was to propose the total deletion
of this text. Eventually, a much diluted version of the original was
agreed to. The new draft text moves away from the mandatory requirement
of "to include in treaties and norms" to the directive that
the WIPO Secretariat "should address in its working documents
for norm-setting activities, as appropriate and as directed by Member
States", "without prejudice to the outcome of Member States
considerations".
Some of the substantive elements have also been diluted, for example,
the phrase "policy space for the pursuit of public policies"
has been removed.
While Group B has moved on from its initial position of not wanting
to discuss at all the proposals in Annex B of the main document as
they comprise many of the proposals of the Group of Friends of Development,
it is now engaging in the discussion, but still working in the negotiating
room to significantly dilute the many proposals put forward by developing
countries.
