News and Analysis • Volume • Number • 4th May 2005

WIPO DEVELOPMENT AGENDA DEBATE CONTINUES AT SEMINAR

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After three days of debate on how to integrate developmental concerns into the functioning of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) (see ,BRIDGES Weekly 13 April 2005), discussions shifted to the fourth session of the Permanent Committee on Cooperation for Development Related to Intellectual Property (PCIPD) on 14-15 April. The Chair suspended the meeting after two days in the absence of consensus. Members rejected Canada’s draft proposal seeking a strengthened role for the PCIPD.

Sources report that the Canadian draft proposal proposed to broaden the scope of the PCIPD’s work to include several of the issues that had been raised during the ‘development agenda’ debates, such as having the committee examine the effects of intellectual property regimes on innovation and economic growth in developing countries. The developing country advocates of a WIPO ‘development agenda’ opposed the Canadian approach, arguing that their concerns needed to be addressed in WIPO’s core debates — not marginalised in a technical committee such as the PCIPD. They argued that the PCIPD should limit itself to operationalising concrete tasks such as technical cooperation.

At the end of the meeting, the majority of WIPO members formally rejected the summary of the meeting’s outcomes that the Chair had prepared in consultation with delegations. However, they did agree that the September meeting of the PCIPD would consider adopting the report of the meeting’s proceedings — a document seen by a number of members to be more representative of their concerns than the Chair’s summary.

ICTSD reporting; “Reform Debate Trips Up WIPO Development Aid Meeting,” INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY WATCH, 15 April 2005