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The World Intellectual Property Organization brought its annual meetings to a dramatic close last week, with members calling for a follow-up "extraordinary session" to be held in December after delegates were unable to reach agreement on several key issues, ranging from the organisation's budget to the next steps for a proposed "industrial design law" treaty.

Last week's impasse reflected a "crisis of governance" at the UN body, South Korea said as the meetings drew to a close on Wednesday evening. Others said that WIPO members themselves were at fault. "We should not blame the WIPO secretariat for the lack of agreement among member states, we should blame ourselves," India said.

Throughout the two weeks of negotiations, WIPO's budget for 2014-2015 remained a particularly divisive issue, mainly over the issue of external offices. The UN body currently has four external offices outside of its Geneva headquarters, and had proposed opening five new ones in Africa, China, Russia, and the US.

The proposal was met by demands from some members, such as Germany, for greater transparency in the selection process. Various members also made the case for establishing offices in their respective countries and regions. African countries, for instance, noted that their continent is the only region lacking WIPO offices, despite needing them for capacity building and technical assistance. The matter was ultimately left unresolved.

Industrial design law treaty sparks controversy

Whether to convene a diplomatic conference - WIPO's highest level of negotiations - in order to adopt a proposed "industrial design law" treaty was another issue that was left on the table after the Assemblies ended. The proposed treaty aims to harmonise industrial design registration formalities at the international level, and has been under discussion since 2009.

In the early days of the Assemblies, some members, such as the EU, had suggested that a design law treaty was in "easy reach." Developing countries had similarly welcomed the proposed treaty, in principle. As the meetings went on, however, the latter group stressed that any legal instrument must include specific provisions regarding technical assistance and capacity building.

Members were ultimately unable to agree on a future work plan for WIPO's Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), the committee dealing with the design law discussions. The plan had included proposals for the committee's work on exceptions and limitations to copyright with regards to libraries and archives.

The General Assembly was also unable to reach consensus on whether to convene a diplomatic conference for a treaty that would facilitate the protection of broadcasting organisations.

IGC mandate renewed

Despite the impasse on these issues, delegates did agree to renew the mandate of the WIPO committee tasked with devising a regime for the protection of genetic resources, traditional knowledge, and traditional cultural expressions.

The Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC) was created in 2000 to address concerns regarding the misappropriation and misuse of the above-mentioned resources, a practice commonly referred to as bio-piracy.

Early on in the Assemblies, WIPO members agreed on a detailed work programme for the next two years, including plans to hold a high-level meeting of ambassadors at the beginning of the IGC's upcoming February session. The committee must also report to next year's General Assembly, so that the latter may issue a decision regarding a possible diplomatic conference.

The timing of such a conference is likely to remain contentious in meetings to come. Despite the agreement on the work plan, members continued to be at odds over issues such as the diplomatic conference's timing, whether an instrument would be legally binding, and how advanced the current draft texts are.

While developing countries say that a diplomatic conference could be held within two years' time, developed countries maintained at last week's meetings that this would be premature. The latter set also has reservations over whether an instrument protecting these resources should be legally binding, which has long been a demand of developing countries.

Any international instrument should be "non-binding, flexible, and sufficiently clear," the EU said last week, adding that Brussels would have preferred a less extensive work programme for the upcoming biennium.

In a separate development, members have also agreed to advance the revision of an existing WIPO treaty, the Lisbon Agreement on Appellations of Origins and Geographical Indications, with a diplomatic conference now slated for 2015 or sooner.

Development expenditure

The General Assembly has also asked member states to continue consulting on a proposal to revise the current definition of "development expenditure," in the hopes of reaching a final version sometime next year. The wording of the definition directly affects how the UN body allocates its funds towards development activities.

Under the current definition, spending qualifies as development expenditure only in instances where the beneficiaries are developing countries, and as long as the same type of expenditure is not provided to developed countries.

The revised version builds on this classification, noting that such expenditures should also directly contribute to helping developing countries "derive benefits from the IP system, [and] reduce the knowledge gap between developed and developing countries." The new definition also specifies a list of activities that would further these goals.

ICTSD reporting.