New Agenda Adopted For WIPO Committee On Patent Law

The World Intellectual Property Organization committee on the law of patents got a slow start this morning as delegates did not agree on the draft agenda submitted by the secretariat for this session. After informal consultations during the morning, WIPO members accepted a draft revised agenda proposed by the committee chair.

The 22nd session of the Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP) is meeting from 27-31 July.

The revised agenda [pdf] was adopted at the beginning of the afternoon session.

The concern with the first version of the draft agenda for a number of developing countries was that it separated the five issues to be discussed at the SCP in two groups. It listed exceptions and limitations to patent rights, patents and health, confidentiality of communication between clients and their patent advisors, and transfer of technology, under “Other issues,” leaving the quality of patents as a standalone item.

According to a developing country source, there was concern that those items might be eventually dropped off the agenda.

A developed country source argued that the first version of the agenda made sense since at the last session of the SCP in December, no agreement was reached on the work programme for this session, and the two new documents to be discussed at this session of the PBC are about the quality of patents.

The chair also issued a tentative schedule [pdf] for the week.