Independent Review Of WIPO Development Up For Debate

The World Intellectual Property Organization Committee on Development and Intellectual Property opened this week with a loaded agenda and some politically-charged issues. One of them is an independent assessment of the mandated mainstreaming of a development dimension into the activities of the UN organisation.

The thirteenth session of the WIPO Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP) is meeting from 19-23 May. The original programme of work [pdf] was amended as countries requested that discussions on an independent review on how WIPO is mainstreaming development in its activities be addressed at the onset of the meeting.

The concept of an independent review is agreed upon, and the terms of reference have been the subject of informal consultations since the last session of the CDIP in November (IPW, WIPO, 22 November 2013).

Draft Terms of Reference [pdf] for the Independent Review of the Implementation of the Development Agenda Recommendations, resulting from those informal consultations, were released yesterday for member states’ consideration.

CDIP Vice-Chair Ekaterine Egutia, deputy head of the National Intellectual Property Center (SAKPATENTI) in Georgia, chaired the informal consultations and said the draft reflected all suggestions made by regional coordinators and member states.

Preliminary comments in the opening day plenary revealed substantial divergence between countries and further informal discussions are scheduled for later to try to draft a consensus version of the draft terms of reference.

WIPO Director General Francis Gurry, opening the week’s session, characterised the independent review as “an important exercise.” He remarked on a “cycle of disagreement” after the failure of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights to adopt conclusion of its recent meeting (28 April – 2 May) and the contentious adjournment of the Committee on WIPO Standards last week. He called for breaking the cycle of disagreement.