WIPO Members Make Progress On Development Agenda

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

28 February 2007

The Director General of WIPO, Dr Kamil Idris, on Monday welcomed a major breakthrough achieved by member states in their discussions on a development agenda for the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Negotiators from 105 countries meeting from February 19-23 met as part of a forum that is looking at proposals to enhance the development dimension in WIPO’s work.

They agreed on a first set of recommendations which will be a part of the final list of agreed proposals to be recommended for action to the WIPO General Assembly in September 2007, after the June 2007 session of the Provisional Committee on Proposals Related to a WIPO Development Agenda (PCDA).

The first set of recommendations pertain to WIPO’s work in the areas of technical assistance and capacity building; norm-setting, flexibilities, public policy and public domain; technology transfer, information and communication technologies (ICT) and access to knowledge; assessment, evaluation and impact studies; institutional matters including mandate and governance and certain other issues.

“I am very pleased at the outcome of the discussions on a development agenda for WIPO and I hope this spirit of compromise and mutual understanding will persist in forthcoming discussions. I congratulate negotiators on showing the necessary political will to move these discussions forward in a meaningful way,” announced Dr Idris.

He continued:

“I am certain that it is the collective will of members of this Organization and the secretariat to ensure that international efforts to build the intellectual property system are balanced and responsive to the needs and interests of all countries – developed and developing. Intellectual property protection is not an end in itself, but should serve a wider social and economic interest. The rights of inventors and creators have to be balanced by wider considerations of the good of society."

“Discussions have shown both the strength of the consensus building process and the willingness of member states to move forward on critical issues,” Dr. Idris said. “It is through strong and open relationships with all those interested in intellectual property protection that we can make true and lasting progress in the service of economic, social and cultural development,” he concluded.

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