24 proposals approved by the WIPO PCDA

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During a special session between 19-23 February 2007, the Provisional
Committee on Proposals Related to a World Intellectual Property Organization
(WIPO) Development Agenda (PCDA) approved some proposals meant to improve
the development of the organization.

The proposal for a WIPO Development Agenda started in 2004 with Argentina
and Brazil which has been formally supported by 13 other Friends of
Development since then.

Forty proposals of a total of 111 produced during the last two years,
gathered on subject matter groupings referred to as “clusters,” were
negotiated, resulting at the end of the session in 24 agreed proposals.

The agreed proposals include technical assistance approaches and
assessments, evaluation and impact studies. They support participatory
rulemaking within WIPO and a mild reform of WIPO’s mandate and governance.
Some refer to the expansion of WIPO’s involvement in IT&C technologies and
access to knowledge and some to the preservation and study of the public
domain, one of the most controversial subjects of the session.

One of the proposal approved was the approach by WIPO of “intellectual
property enforcement in the context of broader societal interests and
especially development-oriented concerns”, with a view that “the protection
and enforcement of intellectual property rights should contribute to the
promotion of technological innovation and to the transfer and dissemination
of technology, to the mutual advantage of producers and users of
technological knowledge and in a manner conducive to social and economic
welfare, and to a balance of rights and obligations”.

The next and final PCDA meeting for this year will be held in June 2007 when
the rest of 71 proposals will be discussed. Participants consider it will be
more difficult to reach an agreement on the remaining proposals as they
involve bigger reform issues such as the one related to WIPO’s legislative
advice to developing and least-developed countries. The outcomes from both
sessions will be correlated and passed on to the WIPO General Assembly which
will decide on how to proceed at its annual meeting in September 2007.

Text-Based Negotiations On A WIPO Development Agenda Pick Up Pace
(22.02.2007)
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=549&res=1024_ff&print=0

Provisional Committee on Proposals Related to a WIPO Development Agenda
Third Session, February 19-23, 2007, Geneva, Switzerland
http://www.cptech.org/ip/wipo/pcda/

WIPO Committee Approves Proposals For Development Agenda (23.02.2007)
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=550&res=1024_ff&print=0

Member States make significant headway in work on a WIPO Development Agenda
(26.02.2007)
http://www.wipo.int/edocs/prdocs/en/2007/wipo_pr_2007_478.html