Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 9 • Number 13 • 7th August 2009

WIPO Conference Tackles Climate Change, Biodiversity

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A high-profile World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) conference held recently in Geneva suggested a greater willingness from the UN agency to engage on public policy issues such as climate change, public health, biodiversity and food security.

Speakers included a number of heads of UN agencies and multilateral organisations - such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) - in addition to government officials, representatives of the private sector and civil society.

At the closing of the two-day conference, the Chairman of the SCP, Maximiliano Santa Cruz, from Chile, announced that the conference had been “useful to open our minds to new solutions and an invitation to think outside the box.” He added that “while the IP may have an adverse effect on some areas of development, it can also be an important part of any solution.”

The Director-General of WIPO, Francis Gurry, underlined that the conference deepened dialogue on the issues discussed. The meeting “reflected the efforts of the intellectual property community to reach out to the social and economic context that intellectual property is designed to address.”

Climate change monopolises agenda

Climate change took a centre stage at the conference in view of the looming international negotiations on climate change in Copenhagen in December, when the parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will try to ink a new deal to mitigate global warming.

The role of intellectual property in technology transfer has emerged as a controversial subject in the negotiations. At the WIPO conference, the gap in perspectives on this issue was apparent.

David Lammy, the United Kingdom’s Minister for Higher Education and Intellectual Property, underscored that the IP system is critical in delivering a global solution that provides for the widespread diffusion and transfer of climate change technologies. He also indicated that his country favoured pooling patents to help companies from developed and developing countries build on the benefits of each others’ technologies.

Haroldo Machado Filho, a Brazilian science and technology official, pleaded for the establishment of a public multilateral fund for purchasing licenses with a view to facilitating the transfer of climate change technologies. Filho added that there is a need to consider criteria for compulsory licensing based on situations of national emergencies or urgency related to climate change.

Carl Holton, Chief IP counsel of General Electric, said intellectual property and market incentives play an essential role in facilitating technology transfer. “Companies do not transact business unless they have confidence they can protect their investments,” he added. Holton emphasised that WIPO should be the world authority on clean technology and IP.

WIPO’s Director-General also stressed that the IP system offers a proven means of encouraging investment in clean technologies, while also pointing to the fact that many climate change technologies are not protected by intellectual property rights, or lPRs, and that technology transfer goes far beyond intellectual property.

The Bolivian ambassador in Geneva recalled, during the discussion, her country’s position at the UNFCCC that environmentally sound technologies should be mandatorily excluded from patenting in developing countries.

Broad interest in IP issues related to biodiversity

In addition to climate change, bio-diversity and food security were debated extensively at the conference.

The discussion on biodiversity focused on the means to ensure fair and equitable benefit sharing from biodiversity. Manuel Ruiz, from the Peruvian Society for Environmental Law, argued that the current IP system has led to the “displacement of native biodiversity”, the “misappropriation of genes and traditional knowledge” (see related story, this issue) and “strict access…legislation” that has negatively impacted research and development (R&D). Ruiz emphasised the need to review national IP systems, patents especially, based on national contexts and needs and suggested the development of methodologies to address how patents impact biodiversity conservation in particular.

Kiyoshi Adachi, from the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) emphasised that facilitating transfers of technology (ToTs) under the CBD requires that in developing IP policies, stakeholders prioritize the public domain rather than just commercial interests and base their decisions on empirical evidence.

Observers say public policy debate long overdue

Discussions at the conference reflected a wide variety of views on intellectual property and public policy challenges held by diverse stakeholders.

Sisule Musungu, president of the Geneva-based think tank IQsensato, noted in a comment on the conference, that while “WIPO can play a useful coordinating role in dealing with or addressing the relationship between IP and a range of public policy issues. It would be dangerous, however, if it was left alone to determine the rules that govern the relationship between those public policy issues and IP.” He added that the conference would be an “interesting indicator as to whether WIPO will coordinate or control the agenda going forward.”

For many observers, the conference was a long overdue development as WIPO had shied away in past years from openly addressing public policy concerns and had pursued a narrow intellectual property agenda. In addition, member states had demanded that WIPO collaborate more closely with other UN agencies, particularly in the context of the WIPO Development Agenda recommendations.

ICTSD Reporting.