WIPO COMMITTEE ON DEVELOPMENT AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MEETS FOR FIRST TIME

The first session of a new World Intellectual Property Organisation committee charged with placing development concerns at the heart of the agency's work is underway in Geneva.

The Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP) is meeting from 3-7 March. WIPO members created the committee in order to develop a work programme for implementing some 45 recommendations adopted in the context of the 'development agenda' deliberations; to monitor, assess, discuss and report on the implementation of these recommendations; and to discuss intellectual property and development related issues.

Barbadian Ambassador Trevor Clarke was elected to chair the meeting.

WIPO's General Assembly adopted the 45 Development Agenda recommendations last fall, after more than two years of intense deliberations on issues related to intellectual property and development (see BRIDGES Weekly, 3 October 2007). Broadly speaking, the 45 proposals call for WIPO, long perceived as biased and driven by the industrialised world's interests, to become more responsive to the concerns of the developing countries that make up the vast majority of its 184 member governments.

Nineteen of the recommendations were identified for immediate implementation (although all 45 were accorded equal priority). Most developing countries say that these recommendations should contribute towards integrating development concerns in a comprehensive manner in all of WIPO's activities, particularly in areas such as technical assistance, norm-setting and governance.

At the beginning of the meeting, a document was circulated containing suggestions made by the Central European and Baltic States, the 'Friends of Development' group, and Korea on activities for the implementation of the WIPO Development Agenda recommendations. Two documents prepared by the WIPO secretariat were also circulated: a preliminary implementation report on the 19 proposals identified for immediate implementation, and a working document containing a list of activities proposed for WIPO to implement the 26 remaining proposals.

The meeting started with a discussion on procedural matters and methods of work. This was followed by statements by regional groups, individual member states and civil society organizations.

ICTSD reporting.