Asia Pacific Countries Challenge Composition Of Key WIPO Committees

The World Intellectual Property Organization Program and Budget Committee is arguably the most powerful committee of the United Nations agency, and is open to a limited number of countries. This year, the countries sitting on the committee have to be renewed, and the Asia and Pacific Group is challenging the way countries are chosen, and their numbers because of under-representation of some regions.

The Asia and Pacific Group submitted a proposal [pdf] yesterday on the composition of the Program and Budget Committee (PBC) due to be approved by the WIPO General Assembly, taking place from 2-11 October.

The proposal says that the WIPO legal counsel’s office, after being consulted about what rules govern the overall composition or election of the PBC, said there are none.

The PBC has grown from 33 to 53 members over time, the proposal says, with no legal basis for the determination of the number of PBC seats, nor the allocation of each regional group.

The Asia and Pacific Group, which does not include China, Japan, Australia or New Zealand, is challenging the representation of regional groups in the PBC, and is calling for a review of the allocation of seats in the PBC for the next biennium (2018/2019).

“The allocation of seats in the PBC from the 2018/2019 biennium should accurately reflect the WIPO Membership and relative sizes of WIPO Regional Groups, and in doing so address the imbalance in the current allocation,” the proposal states.

The proposal suggests that the PBC should eventually be open to the full participation of all interested WIPO members.

According to the group, it has been 10 years since the regional group allocations at the PBC were last considered.

The group published a corrigendum [pdf] to their proposal, modifying a sentence in paragraph 2.b.(2), adding the reaffirmation that every regional group should be represented in the PBC and in the Coordination Committee, one of the WIPO governing bodies.

In recent years, the Asia Pacific region has been one of the fastest rising in the international IP systems managed by WIPO.

 

Image Credits: WIPO