9th March 2005

DEVELOPING COUNTRY GROUP OFFICIALLY REJECTS INFORMAL WIPO MEETING OUTCOME

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A group of developing countries has rejected the outcome of a recent meeting during which selected members of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) discussed the continuation of the global patent harmonisation process. The meeting, held in Casablanca, Morocco, had been put together at the invitation of WIPO Director-General Kamal Idris, and came up with an “action plan” on how to move forward on global patent harmonisation. Several developing countries and civil society organisations had criticised the 15-16 February gathering for its exclusionary nature (see BRIDGES Weekly, 23 February 2005). Brazil, the only supporter of the WIPO Development Agenda invited to attend the Casablanca meeting, was also the only country that refused to endorse the statement that was adopted there.

In direct response to the Casablanca meeting, the ‘Group of Friends of Development’ sent an official statement to the WIPO Secretariat on 7 March, formally challenging the legitimacy of the action plan that had been adopted there. Countries including Argentina, Egypt, Iran, and South Africa joined Brazil in signing the statement, which emphasised that decisions taken by WIPO’s General Assembly must be taken transparently and multilaterally. The group’s statement stressed that according to the General Assembly’s mandate, informal consultations by the Director General should focus on establishing a date for convening the Standing Committee on Law of Patents. They argued that informal meetings cannot legitimately involve substantive discussions that go beyond the current state of negotiations in the General Assembly.

The next official meeting to discuss the WIPO Development Agenda will take place on 11-13 April 2005 at the Intersessional Intergovernmental Meeting at WIPO.

The Group of Friends of Development includes Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Iran, Kenya, Peru, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania and Venezuela.

ICTSD reporting.