WIPO General Assembly Halfway Point – Many Issues Left Open

At mid-point of the annual World Intellectual Property Organization General Assembly, numerous items are unresolved, and several facilitators are in charge of finding consensus on draft decisions, in particular on norm-setting issues and the budget of the UN organisation.

The General Assembly is taking place from 5-14 October.

On the agenda [pdf], the following issues are pending:

– 2 (election of officers), in particular the election of the chair of the important Coordination Committee

– 11 (Report on the Program and Budget Committee). This item has been partially gavelled, but is part of what General Assembly Chair Gabriel Duque is calling the “Lisbon bundle,” in reference to the debate on the Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellations of Origin and their International Registration and its new Geneva Act, cutting across several agenda items.

– 12 (Report on the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR)). Ongoing bilateral talks are expected to yield some draft decision language.

– 14 (Matters Concerning the Standing Committee on the Law of Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Geographical Indications (SCT)). This is also part of the Lisbon bundle.

– 15 (Matters Concerning the Convening of a Diplomatic Conference for the Adoption of a Design Law Treaty (DLT)).

– 17 (Matters Concerning the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC)).

– 19 (PCT System) the Patent Cooperation Treaty; 20 (Madrid System) the Madrid System for the International Registration of Marks; and item 22 (Lisbon System) – all of which are part of the Lisbon bundle.

– 27 (Matters Concerning the Administration of the Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement), which is also part of the Lisbon bundle.

And some other items have not yet been opened, pending the election of the chair of the Coordination Committee.