May 2012

The IP Negotiations Monitor summarizes the latest developments in multilateral and regional fora where intellectual property negotiations are taking place, and informs on upcoming meetings and events.

(Covering period January-March 2012) 

Research Paper 43, March 2012

This paper examines possible modalities of collaboration for research and development (R&D), understood as comprehensive of scientific studies and of activities for the generation of new processes and products and the improvement of existing ones . It briefly discusses, first, the various sources of technology for adaptation to and mitigation of climate change. Second, the paper examines different elements relevant for fostering cooperation in R&D and the modalities that such cooperation may adopt, having in view experiences made in other areas of science and technology. Finally, an analysis of the cooperative model used to promote the development and diffusion of seeds in the ‘green revolution’ is presented, with the aim of exploring its possible applicability to the case of environmentally sound technologies.

Los Ministros africanos instan a la UE a replantear los AAE

En una conferencia celebrada recientemente, los Ministros africanos de Comercio instaron a los países europeos a replantear las premisas básicas de los acuerdos de asociación económica (AAE), acuerdos que podrían causar daños tremendos a las economías africanas y a la integración regional.

Ms. Viviana Munoz Tellez, Officer, Innovation and Access to Knowledge Programme of the South Centre, made a presentation on Exploring a Traditional Knowledge “Commons” at Science and Democracy World Forum, Brazil on 26 – 27 January 2009

See the Panel Summary from: http://fm-sciences.org/spip.php?article379&lang=en

 

Informe sobre Políticas N° 8 Junio de 2007

Resumen

Los debates que tienen lugar en la OMPI sobre un nuevo tratado para la protección de los organismos de radiodifusión y los organismos de difusión por cable contra el robo de señales están íntimamente vinculados con la revolución de la información. Los Estados miembros deben encontrar un equilibrio entre, por un lado, la concesión de una mayor protección a ciertos segmentos de los medios de radiodifusión a fin de que protejan sus intereses comerciales y, por el otro, la protección del interés público por acceder a los contenidos que se difunden y por utilizar dichos contenidos. Por lo tanto, el tratado propuesto debe centrarse en el robo de señales y excluir todo derecho similar a los derechos de propiedad intelectual y todo mandato en materia técnica. Si se incluyen nuevos derechos, deberán contrarrestarse con un sólido régimen de limitaciones y excepciones.

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Documento de Investigación No 9 junio de 2007

Por Viviana Muñoz Tellez y Andrew Chege Waitara 

Desde 1998, los Estados miembros de la Organización Mundial de la Propiedad Intelectual (OMPI) debaten sobre la creación de un nuevo instrumento internacional para la protección de los organismos de radiodifusión. Es posible que las negociaciones finales sobre un tratado relativo a la protección de los organismos de radiodifusión, incluidos los organismos de difusión por cable, comiencen y concluyan en 2007.

South Centre Analytical Note September 2004

Introduction 

1. The fortieth Series of Meetings of the Assemblies of Member States of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) will take place in Geneva from 27 September to 5 October 2004.1 The Assemblies will address various matters including issues currently under negotiation in various WIPO committees and bodies. In particular, the Assemblies will be asked to debate and or provide direction on issues crucial to developing countries and development friendly civil society organizations.2 Issues ranging from the future of the Substantive Patent Law Treaty (SPLT) negotiations, the inter-linkages between the different fora addressing the issues of genetic resources and traditional knowledge, the protection of broadcasting organizations to enforcement, all which raise important questions from a development perspective, are among the issues on the agenda.

2. Developing countries and civil society organizations continue to face a number of challenges in effectively participating at the WIPO Assemblies although there have been significant improvements to their participation in a number of individual WIPO committees and working groups. In this regard, the South Centre and the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) prepared in August 2004 a background paper titled “Integrating Development into WIPO Activities and Processes: Strategies for the 2004 WIPO Assemblies” to assist developing countries to think through the various issues on the agenda of the 2004 WIPO Assemblies.3

3. That paper reviewed the status of the various issues in the individual WIPO committees and other bodies and outlined some broad substantive as well as strategic and political questions that developing countries need to address as they prepare for and participate in the 2004 Assemblies. In particular, the background paper addressed matters relating to the SPLT, the request by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to WIPO, the possible diplomatic conference on the protection of broadcasting organizations, the PCT reform, the WIPO Policy Advisory Commission (PAC) and the WIPO Advisory Committee on Enforcement (ACE).

4. In the meantime, on 26 August 2004, the delegations of Argentina and Brazil presented a proposal on ‘Establishing a Development Agenda for WIPO’ and requested that it be included as an item on the agenda of the Assemblies. Although this proposal has not yet been published by the International Bureau of WIPO as a formal Assembly document, it merits immediate consideration. Considering the issues it raises, it was thought prudent to analyse the proposal separately and not as part of document SC/TADP/AN/IP/2.4 Consequently, this Analytical Note has been prepared to assist developing countries to think through the various issues raised by the proposal with a view to engaging fully in this crucial debate. The proposal by Argentina and Brazil is annexed to this paper.

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South Centre Analytical Note August 2004

Introduction (excerpt)

1. The fortieth Series of Meetings of the Assemblies of Member States of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) will take place in Geneva from 27 September to 5 October 2004.1 The Assemblies will address various matters including issues currently under negotiation in various WIPO committees and bodies. In particular, the Assemblies will be asked to debate and or provide direction on issues crucial to developing countries and development friendly civil society organizations.2 Subjects such as the future of the Substantive Patent Law Treaty (SPLT) negotiations, the inter-linkages between the different fora addressing the issues of genetic resources and traditional knowledge, the protection of broadcasting organizations and enforcement, all which raise important questions from a development perspective, are among the issues on the agenda. Although in general developing countries and civil society organizations have in the last couple of years become increasingly involved and influential in a number of WIPO committees and working groups, their effective participation at the WIPO Assemblies remains a challenge.

2. WIPO has had a fairly busy year so far compared to the World Trade Organization’s Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS). The intense negotiations and or discussions that have characterized a number of WIPO committees, including the discussions/negotiations at the Sixth Session of the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC) in March; at the Tenth Session of the Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP) in May; at the Sixth Session of the Working Group of the Reform of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) also in May; at Eleventh Session of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) in June; and at the Second Session of the WIPO Advisory Committee on Enforcement (ACE) also in June, among others, provide an important backdrop to the discussions at the Assemblies.

3. The scenario that emerges from these negotiations and discussions at WIPO is a complex one and one which indicates that developing countries are likely to face significant challenges at the Assemblies. The challenges not only relate to coordinating strategies and positions with respect to issues arising across various fora in WIPO but also in tackling the various substantive issues that will be addressed at the Assemblies.

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T.R.A.D.E. Occasional Papers 12 December 2003

Executive Summary 

Genetic resources, traditional knowledge and folklore are simultaneously valuable internationally traded assets and the intensely symbolic property of traditional communities. The conventional intellectual property rights system does not provide adequate recognition of the unique nature and context of genetic resources, traditional knowledge and folklore and, as such, both defensive protection under the conventional framework and the development of a sui generis regime need to be considered. As the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) Intergovernmental Committee on Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC), commences work under the extended mandate decided at the thirty ninth series of meetings of the WIPO Assemblies in September/October 2003, it is essential for developing countries to consider a number of issues regarding the protection for genetic resources, traditional knowledge, and folklore:

The protection of rights in genetic resources could clearly benefit from a normestablishing forum that would play an advisory role to sectoral fora, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the agreements that they monitor and implement. The varied nature of the application of genetic resources for commercial and other purposes suggests that intellectual property rights issues relating to them could be better addressed through this means rather than by means of an international instrument whose scope and objectives would be difficult to clarify. The protection of rights in traditional knowledge, whether commercial or cultural in nature, requires the establishment of a binding international regime. However, there is, as yet, insufficient information regarding the scope, nature and objectives of such a regime. The elaboration of this information should be undertaken as a matter of urgency and with the clear statement that the intention is to use it as the basis for the development of a binding international regime. In the interim, a norm-establishing forum to play an advisory role to national intellectual property offices and international fora regarding the consideration of the defensive protection of traditional knowledge under the conventional intellectual property rights framework is required. The protection of rights in folklore, whether commercial or cultural in nature, also requires the establishment of a binding international regime. Unlike the situation with traditional knowledge generally, there is already a substantial body of knowledge that could serve as the basis of negotiations for the development of this regime. A key question for countries is whether they wish to establish a regime for the protection of folklore in parallel with one for the protection of traditional knowledge generally or whether they wish to address these two related fields in the same instrument. The continuation of the IGC in its current form, with a broad or ambiguous mandate, creates a risk that it will spend a significant proportion of its time establishing its specific objectives. To avoid this, specific proposals, such as for an international instrument with clearly definable objectives and possible mechanisms, need to be made in the March 2004 session. These proposals should seek the support of the widest possible grouping of developing countries at the earliest opportunity. The objectives of the extended mandate of the IGC should focus on establishing focused frameworks for future action, and the basis of the substance of this action, rather than on the, perhaps impossible, goal of adopting the detail of a binding agreement. A clear identification of the objectives, scope and basic mechanisms of an international agreement, and the means for its completion, should provide enough momentum for finalising the negotiation of a binding agreement even after the expiry of the IGC’s extended mandate.

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