Public Input Sought In Review Of WIPO Technical Assistance

Public input is being sought this week for an external review of technical assistance provided by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). For years, questions have been raised over the fairness and appropriateness of the guidance and training provided to developing countries by WIPO provides, the UN agency whose aim is to promote protection of IP rights.

In the context of the WIPO Development Agenda, Santiago Roca, economics professor and former president of Peru’s National Institute for the Defense of Competition and the Protection of Intellectual Property, and Carolyn Deere-Birkbeck, senior researcher at the Global Economic Governance Programme at the University of Oxford are conducting an external review of WIPO technical assistance. Separately, Deere-Birkbeck is also founder and board chair of Intellectual Property Watch.

The two consultants have requested public input from all relevant stakeholders regarding their experience and views on the impact, orientation, cost-efficiency, management and coordination of WIPO technical assistance over the past three years (2008-2010). This request is posted on the WIPO website here.

The review is part of the implementation of the Development Agenda, under Recommendation 41.

Comments are accepted until 7 March 2011.