WIPO Development Agenda Inches Forward

According to a press release World Intellectual Property Organization on February 24, 2006, discussions on establishing a development agenda for WIPO have moved forward, with member states agreeing to structure their future work under six main themes after a meeting by The Provisional Committee on Proposals last week.

The Committee was attended by ninety eight member states and forty eight observers, with Member states/groups submitting a total of 111 proposals clustered under the following themes:

1. Technical assistance and capacity building
2. Norm-setting, flexibilities, public policy and public domain
3. Technology transfer, information and communication technology and access to knowledge
4. Assessments, evaluation and impact studies
5. Institutional matters including mandate and governance
6. Other issues

The proposal for a development agenda for WIPO was first launched by Argentina and Brazil, and supported by an additional 12 developing countries, at the 2004 WIPO General Assembly. At that time, member states agreed to hold a series of inter-sessional intergovernmental meetings (IIMs) to examine this proposal as well as additional proposals of other member states.

According to a report from Intellectual Property Watch on the same day, "The mood was positive for most of the week, but by the end, even something as benign as placing proposals under headings was delicate as key countries sought to guide future talks in a direction favourable to them. Debate over categorisation turned tense in the final hours as the 14 Friends of Development, including development agenda originators Argentina and Brazil, were late in submitting placement of their proposals under the headlines created by the chair."

Click here for more on WIPO's Development Agenda.