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Wipo to heed concerns of poor By Frances Williams in Geneva Published: October 5 2004 03:00 | Last updated: October 5 2004 03:00
Supporters of a "devel-opment agenda" in talks on international patents and copyrights claimed progress yesterday with an agreement by the World Intellectual Property Organisation to discuss ways of strengthening responses to development concerns. ADVERTISEMENT
The proposal for a development agenda, spearheaded by Argentina and Brazil, came after poorer countries complained their interests were being sidelined.
"The issue has been discussed for the first time in Wipo and it is now firmly on the agenda," one Latin American diplomat said.
Developing countries say Wipo gives undue priority to higher protection for intellectual property - such as patents, copyrights and trademarks - at the behest of its richer members, and does not pay enough attention to ensuring intellectual property rules serve development and the public interest.
Industrialised countries argued Wipo was already responding to development needs. "We all agree that intellectual property should support economic, social and cultural development," one delegate said. "The question is how - and that's what we're going to discuss."
The development agenda proposal, which won wide backing from poorer members, included negotiation of a Wipo treaty to promote developing-country access to knowledge and technology and a change in Wipo's constitution to emphasise development concerns.
Further support for the Brazil/Argentina proposal came last week in a declaration signed by 500 scientists, academics, legal experts and consumer advocates, including two Nobel laureates. It called for a moratorium on Wipo negotiations aimed at raising intellectual property standards until development needs were considered.
A move by the US, Japan and the European Union to put certain patent law reforms on a fast track was defeated, as was a Wipo secretariat request to increase filing fees for international patents. www.wipo.int
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