IP Justice: WIPO Documents and Treaties

IP Justice Media Release
20 June 2005

Contact: IP Justice Executive Director Robin Gross
Phone: +41-079-434-5126
Email: robin@ipjustice.org

Development Agenda Meeting Considers Proposals to Reform WIPO:
Developing Countries Call for Weighing Costs Against Benefits of Intellectual Property Rights

(Geneva) Today the Member Countries of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and several Non-Governmental Organizations including IP Justice return to Geneva where the second round of the Development Agenda (DA) discussions take place from 20-22 June 2005.

Last September, the WIPO General Assembly adopted the DA, a proposal submitted by 14 developing countries and led by Brazil and Argentina that calls for fundamental reform at the United Nations specialized agency that deals with international intellectual property laws. The Friends of Development (FoD), the coalition urging reform, calls for a change to WIPO's mandate and the creation of an independent research and oversight body to ensure that all WIPO activities are driven towards development-orientated results.

The first round of DA debate took place in April where delegates discussed several proposals from Member States on how to address developmental concerns within WIPO. During the first round of discussions developed countries led by the United States generally opposed any changes to WIPO's mandate or the creation of any new bodies. The wealthy nations instead support a "strengthening" proposal that would relegate any development talks to an existing standing committee, the Permanent Committee on Cooperation for Development.

Developing countries generally oppose the US proposal out of concern that their aims for broader reform will be relegated to a committee that lacks direct access to the General Assembly and can be easily contained or limited. The 14-member FoD coalition includes Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Iran, Kenya, Peru, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, and Venezuela.

"WIPO needs to reform its one-size-fits-all (XL) approach to intellectual property rights that overwhelmingly promotes the interest of industrialized rent-seeking rightsholders at the expense of the general public - particularly in developing countries," said Robin D. Gross, Executive Director of IP Justice, an international civil liberties organization that promotes balanced intellectual property laws. "Developed countries such as the US, have a long history of refusing to respect foreign intellectual property rights in order to promote their own national interest. But now these countries want to impose strict IP rules on poor nations and deny them a similar path of development," explained Gross, an intellectual property attorney.

IP Justice is participating the DA discussions as one of the few accredited NGO's representing the public interest in the debate at WIPO. The IP Justice DA policy paper endorses the FoD proposal and the creation of an independent evaluation and research office that would evaluate all WIPO activities with respect to their impact on development, innovation, creativity and access to, and dissemination of knowledge and technology. IP Justice asserts that WIPO must consider the costs of strict IP systems to developing countries, recognize that countries at different stages of development have different needs, protect flexibilities within the IP system to allow countries to promote their own developmental needs, and that WIPO should work to become more transparent, member-driven, and open to with ongoing inclusion of NGO's.

Links:

IP Justice Policy Statement on Development Agenda Proposals:
http://www.ipjustice.org/WIPO/WIPO_DA_IP_Justice_Policy_Paper.shtml

IP Justice Intervention Statement at 2nd IIM Meeting:
http://www.ipjustice.org/WIPO/WIPO_DA_IPJ_intervention.shtml

IP Justice WIPO Page:
http://www.ipjustice.org/WIPO/

IP Justice Development Agenda Page:
http://www.ipjustice.org/WIPO/WIPO_DA.shtml

An Elaboration of Issues Raised in Development Agenda - Submission by the Group of Friends of Development:
http://www.ipjustice.org/WIPO/elaboration_DA.html

IP Justice is an international civil liberties organization that promotes balanced intellectual property laws. IP Justice defends consumer rights to use digital media worldwide and is a non-profit organization based in San Francisco. IP Justice was founded in 2002 by Robin Gross, who serves as its Executive Director. To learn more about IP Justice, visit the website at http://www.ipjustice.org.