WIPO Committee On Development And IP Opens With Overloaded Agenda 10/11/2014 by Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch 3 Comments Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window)The World Intellectual Property Organization Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP) opened today with a heavy agenda and open issues that carried over from past sessions. In particular, delegates are expected to find agreement on a list of speakers, which would unlock the convening of an international conference on IP and development. They also must agree on the terms of reference of an independent review of WIPO’s implementation of the 45 Recommendations of the 2007 Development Agenda. The 14th session of the CDIP is taking place from 10-14 November. A voluminous amount of documents is on the table, as shown in the agenda [pdf] of the session. A tentative work programme [pdf] for the week was issued at the outset of the session. Geoffrey Onyeama, WIPO deputy director general, opened the meeting on behalf of WIPO Director General Francis Gurry. He underlined the progress made by the committee and said 29 projects had been undertaken, with a budget of CHF 27 million (about US$ 28 million), and some 33 Development Agenda recommendations had been implemented. Development activities have been carried out in 50 countries, he said. For the current session, he said progress needs to be achieved in four pending issues. He cited the finalisation of the terms of reference for an independent review of the implementation of the Development Agenda recommendations. He also mentioned the WIPO General Assembly decision [pdf] on CDIP-related matters. This pertains in particular to the implementation of the CDIP coordination mechanism. Developing countries are requesting that all WIPO committees report on their contribution to the Development Agenda, while developed countries are of the view that WIPO committees should decide themselves if they should report or not on the development dimension of their activities. Currently, the Program and Budget Committee (PBC) and the Committee on WIPO Standards (CWS) do not participate in the coordination mechanism. Onyeama also noted, as part of the pending issues, a proposed international conference on IP and development which could not be held due to lack of agreement on the list of speakers, and an external review of WIPO technical assistance in the area of cooperation for development, on which discussions are still ongoing on how to implement some of the recommendations of this review. Group B Wary of Heavy Agenda, Requests Studies to be Peer-Reviewed Japan, on behalf of Group B developed countries, said the “Development Agenda has to contribute to the objectives of the organisation, by ensuring that development considerations form an integral part of WIPO’s work, namely, it has to support the goals of the WIPO Convention.” The Japan delegate remarked on the length of the agenda, and the volume of the documents, making it difficult to examine them, saying the situation “should be seriously considered.” He furthermore noted that the group was unwilling to agree on any night sessions or extended sessions, given that this CDIP was not at a critical phase such as finalising a treaty text. Group B also said they found some studies and papers produced for this session “are heavily tilted in a direction that suggests that IP is a barrier to development,” and present “weak academic arguments, mostly unsupported by data…” The group suggested the secretariat institute a “rigorous peer review process for any external report or study commissioned and funded by this organisation.” Developing Countries Concerned by Lack of Progress The African Group said it was concerned by the lack of progress in a number of issues, but underlined the importance of the work of the CDIP. The Group of Latin American and Caribbean countries (GRULAC) concurred and said member states should continue to debate the application of the coordination mechanism in a constructive way. Pakistan for the Asia and Pacific Group said the committee should break the cycle of disagreement plaguing WIPO’s committee work, and said the independent review on the implementation of the Development Agenda Recommendations is essential to better assess progress made. On the list of speakers to be invited to attend the conference on IP and development, the delegate said speakers should have expertise of issues and understand the challenges faced by developing countries. Getting the right speakers is critical for the success and the credibility of the conference, she said. She also commented on technical assistance and said it should be demand-driven and not heavily tilted towards enforcement. Several countries, such as India, Nepal and Iran, praised WIPO’s work in implementing Development Agenda recommendations through projects. Long List of Documents on the Table The list of documents for the meeting was commented upon by several developed countries at the opening of the session. Over 20 documents are on the table this week including: Several studies: Study [pdf] on Collective Negotiation of Rights and Collective Management of Rights in the Audiovisual Sector; Study [pdf] on the Impact of Utility Models in Thailand; Study [pdf] on the Use of Intellectual Property and Export Performance of Brazilian Firms; Trademarks Squatters: Evidence from Chile [pdf]; and Economics of IP and International Technology Transfer [pdf]. There also are several evaluation reports on projects: Evaluation Report [pdf] on the Pilot Project for Establishment of Start-Up National IP Academies – Phase II; Evaluation Report [pdf] on the Project on Specialized Databases’ Access and Support – Phase II; Evaluation Report [pdf] on the Project on Developing Tools for Access to Patent Information – Phase II; Evaluation Report [pdf] on the Project on Intellectual Property (IP) and Socio-Economic Development. Also on the table is a document [pdf] compiling project reports on seven Development Agenda projects, as well as four completion reports and a progress report for the period from July 2013 to June 2014 on implementation of 19 Development Agenda recommendations; and a Report [pdf] on IP Use in Brazil (2000-2011). A set of Case Studies [pdf] on Cooperation and Exchange Between R&D Institutions in Developed and Developing Countries is also expected to be considered, as well as several other documents: Policies [pdf] Fostering the Participation of Businesses in Technology Transfer; Intellectual Property-Related Policies [pdf] and Initiatives in Developed Countries to Promote Technology Transfer; International Technology Transfer: An Analysis [pdf] from the Perspective of Developing Countries; Alternatives to the Patent System [pdf] that are used to Support R&D Efforts, Including both Push and Pull Mechanisms, with a Special Focus on Innovation-Inducement Prizes and Open Source Development Models; Global Knowledge Flows [pdf]; and an In-Depth Evaluation [pdf] Study for the Project on Open Collaborative Projects and IP-Based Models. Also to be considered is a proposal for a Project on Intellectual Property (IP) and Socio-Economic Development – Phase II; a Concept Paper [pdf] for the Project on Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer: Common Challenges – Building Solutions (Recommendations 19, 25, 26 and 28); and a Revised Report [pdf] on the Measurement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Other United Nations Agencies and Specialized Agencies, and on the Contribution of WIPO to the Implementation of the MDGs. Finally, a Description [pdf] of the Contribution of the Relevant WIPO Bodies to the Implementation of the Respective Development Agenda Recommendations is also part of the documents. Image Credits: Flickr – Sebastien Wiertz Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window) Related Catherine Saez may be reached at csaez@ip-watch.ch."WIPO Committee On Development And IP Opens With Overloaded Agenda" by Intellectual Property Watch is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.