WIPO Announces International Conference To Probe Interface Between IP And Public Policy

by Ulrika Lomas, for LawAndTax-News.com, Brussels

25 June 2009

Intellectual property and how it relates to public policy issues, such as health, the environment and food security, will be the focus of discussions at an international conference organized by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on July 13 and 14, 2009 in Geneva.

The Conference on Intellectual Property and Public Policy Issues will explore the specific contribution that intellectual property can make in addressing these global challenges and in meeting certain public policy objectives.

It will be preceded by a high-level discussion on the role of intellectual property in meeting the needs of the visually impaired on July 13, 2009 at 9.00am.

David Lammy, Britain’s Minister of State for Intellectual Property in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, will be a keynote speaker at the Conference. A number of other high level officials are expected to join heads of key international organizations, including Margaret Chan (World Health Organization), Michel Jarraud (World Meteorological Organization), Pascal Lamy (World Trade Organization), and Kanayo F. Nwanze (International Fund for Agricultural Development) in addressing these issues.

The inter-disciplinary nature of the Conference reflects the complexity of the shared challenges that the international community is facing, including climate change, epidemics, access to health care, food security and the preservation of biodiversity.

The availability of applicable technologies is key to an effective global response to many of these challenges, according to WIPO. Policies designed to stimulate the creation and diffusion of technology are therefore directly relevant to the ways in which the global community responds to these problems, WIPO believes.

'The intellectual property system offers not only a proven means of encouraging investment in clean technologies which are required to address the threats associated with climate change, but also a range of options to identify, transfer and disseminate those technologies', asserts WIPO.

The Conference 'will serve as a platform for participants to exchange views on these issues with a view to improving understanding by all stakeholders of how intellectual property can contribute to development and technology transfer'.

The event is taking place within the context of WIPO’s renewed efforts to work with all interested parties in ensuring that the intellectual property system – increasingly a factor in debate over public policy issues – 'continues to strike an appropriate balance between the interests of innovators and creators and those of the general public'.

The meeting which precedes the Conference will examine the needs of visually impaired persons as they relate to intellectual property, particularly in terms of how to improve timely access to copyright-protected content.

At a time when the sighted are enjoying unprecedented ease of access to copyright-protected content, a combination of social, economic, technological and legal factors, including the operation of copyright protection systems, are converging to impede access to books, newspapers, magazines or other published works by the blind or other print-disabled persons.

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