Apologies if you receive this more than once...feel free
to repost to your other networks
==================
From: Robin Gross <robin@ipjustice.org>
Below is a statement for publication at next week's WIPO
Development Agenda Meeting. Civil society groups are
invited to sign-on to the statement to show support for
reform at WIPO, and specifically, support for the
Friends of Development proposal.
Background info on the WIPO Development Agenda meeting
is posted at:
http://www.ipjustice.org/WIPO/WIPO_DA.shtml
If your NGO would like to sign-on in support of this
statement, please send me an email (robin@ipjustice.org)
and indicate the NGO name and country in which your NGO
is based.
Please send your support for this statement by TUESDAY
19 JULY so we can publish this on Wednesday JULY 20th at
the beginning of 3rd IIM of the Development Agenda
meeting at WIPO.
And please distribute this statement as widely as
possible and encourage other groups to please sign-on,
so we can show the WIPO delegates that public-interest
groups support reform at WIPO.
Within the next day or so, this group statement (and
translations) will also be posted to the web at:
http://www.ipjustice.org/WIPO/NGO_Statement.shtml
and supporting NGO names will be added there as they
come in.
Our statement would be much more effective if we had it
translated into other languages - particularly Spanish,
French, German, Italian, and Portuguese. If anyone is
able to translate this document into any of these
languages (or others), please let me know asap. We'd
like to distribute hard-copies of these translations at
the 20-22 July meeting also, so will need the
translations completed by the 19th so we can make copies
in Geneva for distribution on the 20th.
Thank you!!
Robin Gross
robin@ipjustice.org
IP Justice
===============================================
We, the undersigned public interest non-governmental
organizations support the adoption of the proposal
submitted by the Group of Friends of Development (FoD)
for a Development Agenda at the World Intellectual
Property Organization (WIPO).
Specifically, we call attention to the following
principles in the FoD proposal and recommend that Member
States:
1. AMEND THE WIPO CONVENTION (1967) TO EXPRESSLY
INCORPORATE A DEVELOPMENT DIMENSION, CONSISTENT WITH
WIPO OBLIGATIONS AS A UN AGENCY
Public interest NGOs fully support Proposal 1 of the
adopted Work Plan (Annex to Summary of Chair), which
proposes amending the WIPO Convention to include
explicit language incorporating a development dimension
and the specific language for such change set forth in
WO/GA/31/11, appendix 3.
The 1974 agreement between the United Nations and WIPO
established WIPO as a specialized agency of the UN
family with responsibility for "promoting creative
intellectual activity and for facilitating the transfer
of technology related to industrial property to the
developing countries in order to accelerate economic,
social and cultural development, subject to the
competence and responsibilities of the United Nations
and its organs . . . ."
Amending WIPO's mandate will enhance and inscribe a
development dimension into the organization's core,
ensuring WIPO will maintain its responsibility to the UN
and promote the public interest, first and foremost.
2. CONSIDER ELABORATION OF A TREATY ON ACCESS TO
KNOWLEDGE AND TECHNOLOGY
We fully support Proposal 3 of the adopted Work Plan
that calls on Member States to consider elaboration of a
Treaty on Access to Knowledge and Technology.
Access to knowledge and information sharing are
fundamental to education and research and to fostering
innovation and creativity. A treaty setting out user
freedoms would address "the need to maintain a balance
between the rights of authors and the larger public
interest, particularly education, research and access to
information, as reflected in the Berne Convention" as
set out in the Preamble to the WIPO Copyright Treaty.
A treaty on access to knowledge and technology would be
a key component in policy interventions to alleviate the
situation in disadvantaged countries and would be of
benefit to the overall socio-economic and political
development of a country.
3. ESTABLISH AN INDEPENDENT WIPO EVALUATION AND
RESEARCH OFFICE (WERO)
Public interest NGOs fully support Proposal 5 of the
adopted Work Plan that calls for the establishment of
WERO.
The creation of an independent research office that
would report directly to the General Assembly is an
important component to the reform mandated by the
General Assembly's adoption of the Development Agenda.
The creation of WERO would strengthen the oversight
function of Member States at WIPO, enhance the
credibility of WIPO and its programmess, and would
comply with established international practice in other
organizations such as the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund.
As set forth in the FoD Proposal, the establishment of
WERO would provide a transparent, independent and
objective body that would evaluate all WIPO programmes
and activities with respect to their development impact
in general and their impact on innovation, creativity
and dissemination of knowledge and technology; assess
the development impact of all proposed norm-setting
activities in WIPO; and monitor and evaluate all WIPO
technical assistance activities based on guidelines
established by the General Assembly.
4. ADOPT PRINCIPLES AND GUIDELINES FOR THE TECHNICAL
ASSISTANCE PROGRAMME We fully support the proposals
which relate to Technical Assistance. These are
Proposal 4 to Formulate and Adopt Principles and
Guidelines for the Development and Implementation of
Technical Assistance; Proposal 10 to Improve Information
Sharing on Technical Assistance; and Proposal 14 to
Develop Indicators and Benchmarks for the Evaluation of
WIPO Technical Assistance.
We believe that these proposals would enhance the value
of technical assistance to developing countries by
providing opportunities to review technical assistance
programmes and keep them fresh, to include new or
alternative business and software models and to ensure
that a cross-section of stakeholder interests are
represented. Consultation with a wide range of groups
such as libraries, educators, people with disabilities
and consumers, as well as creators and rightsholders
would help to build capacity and improve governance, a
key component of the
2005 Report of the Commission for Africa.
5. REFORM WIPO NORMS AND PRACTICES:
A. Weigh the costs and benefits of copyright, patent
and trademark rights Public interest NGOs fully support
Proposal 7 of the adopted Work Plan to formulate and
adopt principles and guidelines for norm-setting
activities in WIPO. WIPO must acknowledge the costs and
benefits of both information monopolies and
harmonization.
Continuously expanding the scope and level of copyright,
patent and trademark rights creates real social and
economic costs. Norm-setting activities must follow
guidelines that balance public access and competition
policies against monopoly rights in knowledge and
information, and that weigh the economic cost of
maintaining and enforcing these systems against the
relative benefits in each country.
In order to reach effective results that meet the
challenges of global development, internationally agreed
upon developmental standards should serve as benchmarks
for WIPO norm-setting activities to meet. The United
Nations Millennium Development Goals, which all 191 UN
Member States have pledged to meet, establish
development standards that copyright, patent and
trademark laws should seek to facilitate.
B. Copyright, patent and trademark rights are not ends
in themselves and must foster the public goals of
innovation, creativity and technical development Public
interest NGOs fully support Proposal 8 of the adopted
Work Plan to undertake independent, evidence-based
"development impact assessments."
International instruments recognize the underlying
public goals of copyright, patent and trademark laws.
The WIPO Copyright Treaty recognizes that copyright law
serves "to maintain a balance between the interests of
authors and the larger public interest, particularly
education, research, and access to information." Trade
Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) Art. 7
explicitly stipulates a balanced and harmonious outlook
between these rights and the public interest.
It is essential that copyright, patent and trademark
rights foster innovation, creativity and technical
development. WIPO must adopt a framework that can
ensure that these information monopolies advance public
goals in developing countries. The FoD proposal for a
Development Agenda at WIPO provides an excellent
blueprint to begin this reform.
C. "One size (XL) fits all" approach to copyright,
patent and trademark rights does not foster development
in all countries International norms for copyright,
patent and trademark rights need to take into account
different levels of development to ensure that the
primary rationale for granting the rights, to promote
societal development by encouraging technological
innovation, is actually accomplished.
Expansive copyright, patent and trademark rights
disproportionately favor wealthy developed countries and
perpetuate the current imbalance in access to and
control of knowledge and information. Copyright, patent
and trademark laws must reflect each country's
development needs to better facilitate access to
information and knowledge throughout the world. Such
access is strongly called for in the "Doha Plan of
Action" agreed by the Heads of State and Government of
the Group of 77 and China and in the "Declaration of
Principles" of the World Summit on the Information
Society .
All countries have a right to make their own economic
development strategies, which are inherently value
based. Articles 1 and 8 of TRIPS recognize both
national sovereignty concerning development strategies
and national values. WIPO's "one-size-fits-all"
approach improperly assumes that western intellectual
property policy embodies universal values.
D. Copyright, patent and trademark laws need to protect
flexibilities and limitations International instruments
and developed countries' own copyright, trademark and
patent laws provide for flexibilities and limitations
that ensure the promotion of social values. Competition
policy, compulsory licenses for medicine, and fair use
exceptions demonstrate that monopoly rights can be
curtailed to achieve public benefits.
Countries need to have policy space to meet national
developmental priorities. Creative expression is value
driven and copyright, patent and trademark law governs
what type of creative expression is either permissible
or infringing, and what type of creative expression is
"protectable" and to what extent. Since all Member
States have a natural right to exercise their own values
and the legal system is the principal means through
which society can assert its values, all nations have a
natural right to make value choices regarding their own
level of copyright, patent and trademark rights.
WIPO technical assistance should promote the full range
of flexibilities provided by TRIPS, including education
and promotion of non-proprietary free and open access
development models.
E. More transparent and Member driven with ongoing
public interest participation Public interest NGOs fully
support Proposals 6 and 9 of the adopted Work Plan
which, respectively, seek to ensure wider participation
of public interest NGOs at WIPO, and to establish a
system of holding public hearings prior to the
initiation of norm-setting activities.
The FoD proposal initiates an important dialogue on
making fundamental changes to ensure that WIPO is truly
Member driven, as the majority of WIPO constituents are
from developing countries. In order to progress as a
Member-driven organization, WIPO must address the
development concerns of its Members in all aspects of
its work.