WIPO Enforcement Committee Gains Ground As “Marketplace Of Ideas”

World Intellectual Property Organization members this week are meeting to discuss efforts to better protect intellectual property rights worldwide.

The discussion includes new proposals and elements aimed at keeping the debate up-to-date and advancing cooperation among countries.

The 9^th session of the WIPO Advisory Committee on Enforcement (ACE) is taking place from 3-5 March. Documents for the meeting are available here.

The work of the ACE comes under WIPO’s 6^th goal to build respect for intellectual property; a principle that “all countries, whether developed or developing, have a common interest,” said the chair of the committee, Amb. Thomas Fitschen, deputy permanent representative at the German mission.

WIPO Director General Francis Gurry opened the meeting by highlighting that the two main subjects are alternative dispute resolution and its role, and preventive actions. He said “prevention is always better than cure,” and noted that the meeting includes a number of practical examples of preventive measures that are being taken around the world in an exhibition taking place alongside the meeting.

Another subject is looking at the future work programme of the committee, which he said has evolved into a rich forum for exchange and discussions on how to build respect for IP.

The ACE is as an advisory body, not mandated to set policy. In his opening remarks, meeting chair Fitschen said that “the purpose of the ACE is not to set norms. Our task is to exchange information on enforcement.” By sharing experiences, member states and stakeholders, including from the private sector, can help each other to cooperate and address the challenges of enforcement, he said.

“The ACE is really becoming a ‘marketplace of ideas’,” he said.

The chair reminded member states of their duty to set up effective measures to ensure compliance with legal obligations that they have signed up to. The ACE will discuss education, coordination and technical assistance, training programmes for stakeholders, and broader societal interests and development-oriented concerns.

On the agenda, available here [pdf], were presentations on the practices and operation of alternative dispute resolution systems in IP areas to be given by attorneys and WIPO, national and industry representatives.  A second group of presentations will discuss preventative actions and experiences, under the headings of national approaches, new business models, supply chain security and internet-related measures.

New Proposals

At the last ACE meeting, held over a year ago, Egypt proposed to have a discussion on the contribution of the ACE to the implementation of relevant provisions of the WIPO Development Agenda. This was agreed to as an agenda item on an ad hoc basis and will take place later this week, according to sources.

Additionally, the United States, United Kingdom and Poland introduced a new proposal under future work of the committee to discuss “Specialization of the Judiciary and Intellectual Property Courts.”

This proposal is included as an appendix to the meeting document on future work, WIPO/ACE/9/28. The one-page proposal says there is interest in the subject, and lists examples of past meetings in which it arose.

“Member States have been active in either establishing a specialized judiciary or in creating intellectual property courts,” the proposal states. “Such practices may lead to significant benefits to enforcement such as: improvements in judicial efficiency decision-making, increased consistency and predictability of case outcomes, and reducing costs to enforcement systems. Accordingly, we believe it is timely for the ACE to focus on this theme, as it would be valuable to have an interchange regarding Member States’ efforts in this area for the tenth session.”

Group B developed countries signalled support for the proposal, which will be discussed more fully later in the week, sources said.

Member State Interventions

A number of countries made statements during the first day of the meeting. The following are just a few examples.

Belarus on behalf of the group of Central Asian Caucuses and Eastern European countries praised the ACE as a “catalyst” to help countries put plans into action, and said the work of the committee has given “a fresh impetus to our work.”

Kenya on behalf of the African Group said the notion of respect for IP should be in the context of the relevant Development Agenda Recommendation 45 on IP enforcement in the context of broader societal interests, and that a balanced debate reflecting public and private interests should be held. The delegate also mentioned the importance of recognising flexibilities that member states have under international IP trade law.

Egypt on behalf of the Development Agenda Group noted that the chair’s summary was the only document recording the previous meeting in the absence of minutes of the meeting, and said proposals made several countries needed to be included in full rather than just their titles.

Brazil recalled the status of WIPO as a specialised UN agency and its role in a broad and balanced approach to technical assistance in enforcement.

WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Centre

Ignacio de Castro, deputy director of the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Centre, presented the activities of the centre, which provides alternative services for dispute resolutions between private parties through mediation, arbitration and expert determination. Since its set up in 1994, the centre has settled over 350 cases, the majority of which were mediations.

A survey carried out recently by the centre showed that the majority of contracts in intellectual property are international, with parties domiciled in different countries and relating to rights protected in different jurisdictions. De Castro said that the centre allows direct negotiations that are more time and cost effective than litigation and they have experienced a high settlement rate.

The centre has adapted its dispute resolution systems to disputes relating to research and development in technology transfer, and information and communications technology.  The centre is working with standard-setting organisations on arbitration options.

A new procedure was introduced last year tailored to telecom disputes such as those concerning the adjudication of fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.

The centre has also been working with national intellectual property offices to help them offer mediation as an alternative to litigation to interested parties. It highlighted its work with the IP Office of Singapore (IPOS) to establish a joint procedure for the mediation of trademark oppositions, which is being evaluated by IPOS for possible use in patent and design proceedings as well.

Other Issues

Separately, at the meeting, the US-based industry-backed group Center for Responsible Enterprise and Trade (CREATe.org) is seeking acceptance as an observer to the ACE. CREATe.org is “a non-profit organization founded in October 2011 to help companies and supply chain members mitigate the risks of counterfeiting, piracy, trade secret theft and corruption by improving management systems, processes and practices to protect IP and prevent corruption,” according to its profile in the WIPO documents, available here.

Alongside the ACE meeting is an exhibition presenting the efforts of nine countries and a regional organisation to build public awareness and respect for IP. An Intellectual Property Watch story on the exhibition will follow shortly.

Julia Fraser is an intern at Intellectual Property Watch. She is currently training to be a solicitor and will start work at an international law firm in London in 2015. She has a BSc Honours in Biology from Edinburgh University where she developed an interest in public health related intellectual property issues.

Catherine Saez contributed to this story.