WIPO Committee on Development and Intellectual Property: Third meeting
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Deutsch: [Das WIPO-Komitee für Entwicklung und Geistiges Eigentum: das dritte Treffen | http://www.unwatched.org/node/1393]
The central issues in the third meeting of the World Intellectual Property
Organization (WIPO) Committee on Development and Intellectual Property
(CDIP) seemed to be the creation of centralized databases to collect
traditional cultural expressions, traditional knowledge, genetic material
and public domain material – and to close the digital divide between
(post-)industrialized nations and economies in transition, developing
countries (DCs) and the least developed countries (LDCs).
Because Public Domain (PD) is decidedly different in different countries, it
was proposed that a study on what does PD entail in different countries be
undertaken by WIPO. From this study, a database should be created for the
use of different actors that need to know what actually belongs to PD.
Another central concern expressed by DCs and LDCs during the meeting was
that PD should not only be mapped and preserved, but also enriched when
possible. On the other hand, DCs and LDCs were worried that traditional
cultural expressions, traditional knowledge and genetic material would be
presumed to automatically belong to PD. Although direct concerns were not
mentioned with all three areas, it was apparent that with the first, the
worry was the westernization of traditional music, texts, behavior patterns
etc. and with the second, that traditional knowledge about herbs and
medicines as well as treatments would be enclosed by western multinational
corporations without benefit to the local tribes and people who actually
found them (CDIP/3/3, Recommendation 20)
A clear tension between (post-) industrialized countries and DCs, LDCs and
economies in transition was appearant. The latter often promoted to each
other innovative and situational suggestions taking multiple views into
account. The industrialized countries’ representatives, more often than not,
attempted to preserve the status quo, although as exceptions to this rule
Japan and the Republic of South Korea must be mentioned. Japan had
innovative ideas on E-SPEED database from which the member states, their
patent and registering officials and stakeholders could observe various
kinds of cases and how Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) in different
countries are handled (CDIP/3/8). Republic of Korea suggested doing a study
in Fair Trade practices in different market areas – how to strengthen these
and make them more widely used and available (CDIP/3/7). Some industrialized
countries representatives expressed doubt on whether these proposals would
be feasible in this economical environment, but, of course, this was also
met with some skepticism by DCs and LDCs. After all, the kinds of economic
problems western countries suffer from are in no way comparable of the
normal situation DCs and LDCs face.
Most EU and Group B representatives seemed satisfied with the fairly few
comments made by the Czech Republic (in the name of EC and its 27 member
states) and Germany. These representatives mainly commented on certain
technical issues in the proposed projects execution, whereas the US
representative tended to be more vocal and a stronger proponent of the
status quo by more often than not referring to practices which would slow
and hinder the proposed changes to the projects. As an interesting side
topic, the one time the UK representative used an intervention, he mentioned
(freely quoting) that as he was representing the UK population as a whole,
also Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) constituency not just the
government and rights holders, therefore the need for NGO interventions was
not all that necessary. Let us hope that the UK delegate really does
represent all the stakeholders in UK, although it remains unclear when these
stakeholders have the opportunity to be heard by this representative in
relation to WIPO CDIP.
NGOs, DCs and LDCs were all worried specifically about the end of the
projects – would the projects carry on after the funding for them by WIPO
ended? If a project for setting up a center for certain IPR policy lasted 5
years, would it actually be run after this? What would happen to the
hardware bought? It would at that stage be old and in need of replacement,
at least some of the personnel trained would be offered work elsewhere both
during and after the project ended and the state would not necessarily have
the funds to keep the project going on their own.
Worries were also presented on the transparency and wider use of WIPO
prepared material. Even though a large part of it is available, either for
free or at a reasonable price, if there is no infrastructure in place to
facilitate the use, it doesn’t mean much.
The meeting was a positive experience compared to previous CDIP meetings
from the point of view of NGOs. The representatives of NGOs were offered far
more possibilities to comment on the items at the agenda than in previous
meetings. Especially The Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL)
did a lot of work for this to happen. The representative for CIEL talked
with various member states representatives, the chair and the secretariat –
with good results. NGOs had their traditional possibility to offer views and
point out specifically important topics during the opening session, but the
chair also attended the NGO meeting Wednesday morning.
After that meeting, he offered the NGOs a possibility to give short
statements both during Thursday and Friday. The first time this possibility
was offered, only Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) and Electronic
Frontier Foundation (EFF) were able to use this to their advantage.
During Friday, the NGOs were more prepared for this possibility and more of
them, and in more depth towards the topics under handling, were able to use
the possibility and various short comments were heard.
During Monday’s opening statements, Library Copyright Alliance (LCA) and
Electronic Information for Libraries (eIFL.net) presented their concerns
about libraries using electronic materials in DCs and LDCs . There are
problems with this even in industrialized nations, thus they were concerned
that in states with less developed practices this would especially cause
lots of problems. As an example, the use of orphan works is troublesome even
in the industrialized countries: how to handle potential payments if the
rights holders are found, how to find out whether the rights holder is known
when concentrated databases of e.g. copyright holders do not exist, etc.
Licensing practices are also unclear in many DCs and LDCs, and often do not
offer any possibilities for libraries to offer electronic materials to be
loaned outside specific contracts (see especially CDIP/3/5 and
CDIP/3/INF/2).
During Thursday, FSFE brought to attention the advantages free software and
open standards would offer in many situations. The free software and open
standards advantages (e.g. possibility to translate software instead of
relying on the good will of the software producers) enable more democratic
innovation models than traditional propietary software, thus allowing
developing countries to reap considerable benefits from using free software
and relying on open standards.
CIEL was instrumental in getting the possibility for the NGOs to be active
during the Friday session. The CIEL representative saw it essential that the
databases containing technical information on IPRs (see e.g. CDIP/3/INF/2,
Annex II, Recommendation 5) should include model solutions. If possible,
they should also be updated in real time instead of in batches. All surveys
and studies ought to be based on empirical studies and statistical analysis
performed by independent researchers rather than on rights holder
associations’ or purely theoretical ones, which often seems to be the case.
Finally, the results from these studies and surveys should be available to
all, not just WIPO member states.
On top of what was presented in the official meetings, the political play in
the corridors of power were interesting to follow. Who eats lunch with whom,
what was said, but especially what was not said, what kinds of
presuppositions were brought to discussions depending on the member state or
group of the representative. The decision making cannot be considered open,
transparent and democratic, even in good will, but progress towards more
open and enabling discussions can be, none the less, seen.
Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP) : Third Session
http://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/details.jsp?meeting_id=17382
Center for International Environmental Law
EFF
http://www.eff.org/
Library Copyright Alliance (LCA)
Electronic Information for Libraries
http://www.eifl.net/cps/sections/home
FSF Europe
http://fsfeurope.org/projects/wipo/
(contribution by Kai K. Kimppa – Lecturer, Information Systems, University
of Turku – Finland)