The General Assembly of World Intellectual Property Organisation has agreed to continue discussions on the proposed WIPO Development Agenda for another year. Member governments had sent no recommendations on the way forward to the meeting due to the sharp differences that emerged in a preparatory session in June (Bridges Year 10 No.4, page 18).
It was agreed that the Provisional Committee on Proposals Related to a WIPO Development Agenda (PCDA) would hold two five-day sessions to allow for structured in-depth discussions on all 111 proposals made so far. The first meeting is to cover the 40 proposals that were included in a Chair’s draft text in June, and were later tabled as a government submission by the Kyrgyz Republic. The 71 remaining proposals – mainly put forward by the so-called Friends of Development, which seek more substantive changes to WIPO’s orientation – will be discussed at the second meeting.
According to WIPO, the committee will seek to narrow down the proposals in order to ensure that there is no repetition or duplication; separate ‘actionable’ proposals from those which are declarations of general principles and objectives, “and note those proposals, which relate to existing activities in WIPO and those which do not.” The committee is to report to the 2007 General Assembly, with recommendations for action on the agreed proposals, as well as a framework for continuing to address on the remaining proposals. Meanwhile, the Permanent Committee on Intellectual Property and Development, which has dealt with co-operation for development, will cease to exist.
The General Assembly also agreed to convene a diplomatic conference from 19 November to 7 December 2007 to finalise negotiations on a new treaty that is to enhance protection of broadcasting and cablecasting organisations. Developing country delegates and civil society activists expressed satisfaction at the decision that the treaty would take a ‘signal-based’ rather than a ‘rights-based’ approach, as the latter would have had a greater likelihood of substantially raising the costs of using broadcast material for personal or educational purposes, as well as restricting the entry of information into the public domain.
WIPO members decided not to hold a formal meeting next year of the Standing Committee on the Law of Patents, which is the main WIPO body working on the Substantive Patent Law Treaty (SPLT) aimed at harmonising patent laws worldwide. Those talks have been adrift since April.
The next issue of Bridges will cover the General Assembly outcome in more depth.