A2K and the WIPO Development Agenda: Time to List the “Public Domain”

by Dr. Uma Suthersanen

Policy Brief No.1 Series • Policy Brief

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Access to knowledge related issues have been an important component of the initiative of a Development Agenda for WIPO since its launch in 2004.

In 2007, the WIPO General Assembly adopted 45 recommendations with a view to integrating this development dimension in all of the Organization’s activities. A number of these recommendations deal with the public domain, as they call, for instance, for the preservation of the public domain and for support to norm-setting processes that promote a robust public domain. They also invite WIPO to initiate discussions on how to further facilitate access to knowledge for developing countries and least developed countries in order to foster creativity and innovation.

With a view towards operationalizing these recommendations, Dr. Uma Suthersanen (School of Law, Queen Mary, University of London) has prepared this Policy Brief for ICTSD’s Programme on IPRs and sustainable development entitled: A2K and the WIPO Development Agenda: Time to List the Public Domain.

In this brief, Dr. Suthersanen argues that the WIPO Development Agenda is an opportunity, not only for developing countries and public interest organizations, but also for more developed countries to place the notion of the “public domain” at the centre of the intellectual property debate.

She underlines that access to the public domain should not be limited to the existing body within a particular jurisdiction, but should be extended to an international list of “public domain” materials. She further highlights that countries, particularly developing countries and LDCs, should be able to rely on an international and mature listing of public domain material in order to boost their local innovation, as innovation and creativity depend, to a very large extent, on viable access to existing public domain sources.

From this perspective, Dr. Suthersanen proposes the creation of an international register for “public domain matter”. Selection criteria for public domain material in this register could benefit from the work carried out by UNESCO in listing world heritage since the adoption of the landmark Convention on the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (1972).

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