The aim of the dialogue is to present the findings of recent research on piracy and intellectual property (IP) enforcement in a number of developing countries and consider their possible implications for international discussions on IP enforcement.

Background
The enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPRs) has gained prominence in recent years in the global trade and IP agenda. A number of initiatives at the global, regional and bilateral level aiming at the strengthening of IPRs enforcement carry far-reaching implications for the regulation of the knowledge economy.

However, many of these initiatives - and the discourse underpinning them – are mostly confined to a legalistic and repressive approach. The meeting of the WIPO Advisory Committee on Enforcement (ACE) offers an opportunity to address piracy and IP enforcement from a broader social and economic perspective taking into consideration recommendation 45 of the WIPO Development Agenda, which underlines the need “to approach intellectual property enforcement in the context of broader societal interests and especially development oriented concerns,” in accordance with Article 7 of the TRIPS Agreement.

In addition, under Strategic Goal VI of WIPO, the objective of Program 17 (Building Respect for IP), is namely “Informed and empirically well-founded policy discussions at the international level to support the creation of an enabling environment that promotes respect for IP in a sustainable manner and strengthened capacity in Member States for the effective enforcement of IP rights in the interests of social and economic development and consumer protection.”

In this context, recent research published by the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) in 2009 has focused on the economic dimension of enforcement and has been made available to fifth session of the ACE as one of its documents.[1]

At the same time, the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) is undertaking an important project – the Media Piracy Project- to investigate music, film, and software piracy in a number of developing economies. The project is built around studies of piracy and IP enforcement efforts in India, Brazil, South Africa, Russia, Mexico, and Bolivia, and framed by a wider examination of IP policymaking and enforcement at the international level.  Six institutions and twenty-five researchers have been involved in the 2-year research project. Some preliminary results of these studies will be presented at the Dialogue.
The Dialogue aims to foster a constructive debate on IP enforcement by providing new perspectives on its economic and sociological dimensions in a development context and consider lessons which could be useful for international discussions and efforts in this area.

Draft Programme

Introduction

ICTSD

Speakers

Joe Karaganis, Social Science Research Council (SSRC), New York
Pedro Mizukami, Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV), Rio de Janeiro

Commentators

Exchange of views with participants

A light lunch will be served.

Pre-registration by Monday November 2nd 2009 is required due to space and security requirement. Please contact Hannah Leone (hleone@ictsd.ch).
_________

[1] Enforcing Intellectual Property Rights: An Economic Perspective, by Carsten Fink, document (WIPO/ACE/5/6) originally published by ICTSD as part of Issue Paper 22, The Global Debate on the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights and Developing Countries, ICTSD Programme on IPRs and Sustainable Development (available at http://ictsd.net/i/publications/42762/).

In 2007, the WIPO General Assembly adopted 45 recommendations with a view to integrating this development dimension in all of the Organization’s activities. A number of these recommendations deal with the public domain, as they call, for instance, for the preservation of the public domain and for support to norm-setting processes that promote a robust public domain. They also invite WIPO to initiate discussions on how to further facilitate access to knowledge for developing countries and least developed countries in order to foster creativity and innovation.

With a view towards operationalizing these recommendations, Dr. Uma Suthersanen (School of Law, Queen Mary, University of London) has prepared this Policy Brief for ICTSD’s Programme on IPRs and sustainable development entitled: A2K and the WIPO Development Agenda: Time to List the Public Domain.

In this brief, Dr. Suthersanen argues that the WIPO Development Agenda is an opportunity, not only for developing countries and public interest organizations, but also for more developed countries to place the notion of the “public domain” at the centre of the intellectual property debate.

She underlines that access to the public domain should not be limited to the existing body within a particular jurisdiction, but should be extended to an international list of “public domain” materials. She further highlights that countries, particularly developing countries and LDCs, should be able to rely on an international and mature listing of public domain material in order to boost their local innovation, as innovation and creativity depend, to a very large extent, on viable access to existing public domain sources.

From this perspective, Dr. Suthersanen proposes the creation of an international register for “public domain matter”. Selection criteria for public domain material in this register could benefit from the work carried out by UNESCO in listing world heritage since the adoption of the landmark Convention on the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (1972).

The International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) and the Quaker UN Office (QUNO) organized an informal meeting with the purpose of facilitating interaction between intellectual property (IP) professors attending the “WIPO & WTO colloquium for Teachers of Intellectual Property” and Geneva delegates and civil society representatives on current IP and Sustainable development issues.

 

The dialogue started with an introduction by Pedro Roffe and Martin Watson on the work undertaken by ICTSD and QUNO on Intellectual Property and Development matters. After, this brief introduction, Sisule Musungu of the South Centre gave a brief overview of current IP debates including the recent Provisional Committee on Proposals Related to a WIPO Development Agenda (PCDA). This was followed by an open discussion on IP policy issues by participants.

 

Agenda:

7:00 p.m. Welcoming remarks

 

Martin Watson, QUNO

Pedro Roffe, ICTSD

 

7:30 p.m. New global challenges and opportunities for a development agenda

 

 

Current IP debates including the recent Provisional Committee on Proposals Related to a WIPO Development Agenda (PCDA)

Sisule Musungu, South Centre

 

8:00 p.m. Discussion

 

 

Participants

1. BOTSWANA
KIGGUNDU, Professor John
Department of Law
Faculty of Social Sciences
University of Botswana
Botswana

2. ERITREA
ANDEMARIAM,, Mr. Senai
Asmara
Eritrea

3. KENYA
MBOTE, Professor Patricia Kameri
University of Nairobi
Nairobi

4. NIGERIA
PAM, Mr. Adamu
Faculty of Law
University of Jos
Nigeria

5. SOUTH AFRICA
TONG, Ms. Lee-Ann
Athlone, Cape Town
South Africa

6. EGYPT
HASANIN, Mr. Galal
The Supreme Council for Culture
Cairo
Egypt

7. SUDAN
MAKKI, Mr. Hussam
University of Juba
Sudan

8. CHINA
CUI, Professor Guobin,
Tsinghua University, School of Law
Beijing
China

9. INDIA
RAY, Mr. Amit
JNU
New Delhi
India

10. PAPUA NEW GUINEA
LOMAI, Mr. P. Ben
NCD
Papua New Guinea

11. REPUBLIC OF KOREA
PARK, Prof. Nohyoung
College of Law
Korea University
Seoul
Republic of Korea

12. THAILAND
WONGWITIT, Ms. Sumalee
Faculty of Law
Ramkhamhaeng University
Bangkok
Thailand

13. VIET NAM
LE THI THU,
Ms. Thuy
Faculty of Law
Viet Nam National University
VNU Campus
Ha Noi
Viet Nam

14. BULGARIA
BRESTNICHKA, Professor Roumiana
Bulgaria

15. ARGENTINA
WITTHAUS, Professor Mónica
Buenos Aires
Argentina

16. BRAZIL
CHAMAS, Dr. Claudia
Rio de Janeiro
Brazil

17. COLOMBIA
MADRID, Mr. Luis Angel
Colombia

18. JAMAICA
PEREIRA, Ms. Beverley
University of the West Indies
Legal Unit, Office of the Vice Chancellor
Jamaica
West Indies

19. VENEZUELA
COLMENTER, Professor Ricardo
Adjunct Professor
University of Houston
Dickinson
USA

20. CZECH REPUBLIC
STERBOVA, Ms. Ludmila
Genève

21. UNITED STATES
CHON, Professor Margaret
Seattle University School of Law
Seattle

22. UNITED STATES
LYBBERT, Professor Travis
USA

23. SUDAN
Hussain MAKKI

24. WEST INDIES
Beverley PEREIRA

25. EGYPTIAN MISSION
Ragui EL-ETREBY

26. KENYA MISSION
Joseph MBEVA

27. CHINA MISSION
Yusong CHEN

28. BRAZILIAN MISSION
Guilherme PATRIOATA

29. BRAZILIAN MISSION
Christiano BERBERT

30. COUMBIAN MISSION
Nicolas TORRES

31. SOUTH CENTRE
Sisule MUSUNGU

32. QUNO
Martin WATSON

33. QUNO
Nico TYABJI

34. ICTSD
Pedro ROFFE

35. ICTSD
David VIVAS-EUGUI

36. ICTSD
Johanna von BRAUN

 

 

 

 

The presentation of the Book will take place at 18:00 in the Restaurant of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Avenue de la Paix 7bis, top floor. For more information, please contact Andrew Stevenson at ICTSD (Tel  + 41 22 917 8664 , Fax: + 41 22 917 80 93, E-mail: astevenson@ictsd.ch).

ICTSD-UNCTAD Roundtable
ICTSD is proud to announce the launch of the UNCTAD - ICTSD Resource Book on TRIPS and Development, to be held on 7 April 2005 from 9h00 - 11h00 at the International Environmental House II, Rooms Rhin and Aare.

The Resource Book, published in February 2005 by Cambridge University Press, is conceived as a thorough guide to the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). It provides a detailed analysis of each provision of the Agreement, aiming at a sound understanding of WTO Members’ rights and obligations. The purpose is to clarify the implications of TRIPS, especially highlighting the areas in which the treaty leaves leeway to Members for the pursuit of their own policy objectives, according to their respective levels of development.

Programme

9.00 - 9.30:

Welcoming Remarks and presentation of the Resource Book
Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz, Executive Director, ICTSD
Carlos Fortin, Officer-in-Charge, UNCTAD
Pedros Roffe, Project Director, ICTSD

9.30 - 10.30

Panel Discussion:
Guilherme Patriota, Permanent Mission of Brazil to the UN
Cameron MacKay, Permanent Mission of Canada to the UN
Adrian Otten, Director, Intellectual Property Division, WTO
Frederick Abbott, Professor, Florida State University College of Law
Carlos Correa, Professor, Universidad de Buenos Aires / South Centre

10.30 - 11.00:

Questions & Answers

Participants

Frederick Abbott, Professor, Florida State University College of Law
Christophe Bellmann, ICTSD
Johannes Bernabe, Permanent Mission of The Philippines to the WTO
Carlos Correa, Professor, Universidad de Buenos Aires / South Centre
Carolyn Deere, Intellectual Property Watch
Ragui El-Etreby Permanent Mission of Egypt
Carlos Fortin, Officer-in-Charge, UNCTAD
Hekmatollah Ghorbani, Permanent Mission of Iran
Khalil Hamdani, UNCTAD
Myrna Huggins, Permanent Mission of Trinidad and Tobago
Alejandro Jara, Permanent Mission of Chile
Atul Kaushnik, Permanent Mission of India
James Lankford, QUND
Bernice Lee, ICTSD
Jean-Cristophe Maur, DFID UK
Cameron Mckay, Permanent Mission of Canada
Giselle de Meléndez, University of Geneva
Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz, Executive Director, ICTSD
Sisule Musungu, South Centre
Angelica Navarro, Permanent Mission of Bolivia
Alejandro Neyra, Permanent Mission of Peru
Maria Julia Oliva, CIEL
Adrian Otten, Director, Intellectual Property Division, WTO
Davinia Ovett, 3D
Guilherme Patriota, Permanent Mission of Brazil to the UN
Pedro Roffe, Project Director, ICTSD
Maximiliano Santa Cruz, Permanent Mission of Chile to the WTO
Dayaratna Silva, Permanent Mission, of Sri Lanka
David Vivas, ICTSD
Martin Watson, QUND

Monday 24th November 2008

9h30-13h00

International Environment House II

7 Chemin de Balexert, 1219 Geneva

Salle Rhin

In recent years, an increasing number of countries (such as China, Colombia, Japan, etc) have adopted national IP strategies aimed at the development of an IP system for the promotion of innovation and economic development in the context of the knowledge economy.
 
However, there has not been up to date and in depth discussion between different stakeholders - governments, international organizations and civil society – on the manner in which these strategies are formulated and implemented. A number of policy questions arise in this regard: What are the methodologies followed in the elaboration of these IP strategies? What is the follow-up and implementation? How can we ensure that these strategies take into consideration the specific circumstances and needs of each country as well as their development objectives?

IP strategies are also relevant to the implementation of the WIPO Development Agenda recommendations.

It is with this in mind that UNCTAD and ICTSD are organizing a meeting on IP strategies and sustainable development on Monday the 24th November 2008 in the morning (9h30-13h00) at ICTSD.

 The objectives of the meeting are :  a) presentation of the experiences by countries and international organizations in the preparation of national IP strategies  b) an exchange of views on the different approaches and methodologies followed in the preparation of these  IP strategies.

The meeting will include Geneva IP experts, delegates and representatives of international organizations.

Please click on information note for further details.

This working paper was prepared for the EDGE (Emerging Dynamic Global Economies)Network, hosted by the University of Ottawa and funded in part by the International Development Research Centre.

We consider this international copyright acquis as our general starting point, and evaluate options for the design of such an instrument, including questions on political stability and institutional home.

A2K3 will bring together scholars, policymakers, industry, and civil society to discuss key issues in global knowledge policy.  Topics will include: the history, impact, and future of the global A2K movement; the relationship between A2K and human rights; A2K and the WIPO Development Agenda; the impact of international trade rules on A2K; copyright exceptions and limitations in the information society; open business models; research and capacity building for A2K; prizes as alternatives to intellectual property monopolies; promoting open access to science and research; technologies of access such as community wireless, open source, and open standards; and public mobilization in the networked and digital global public sphere.

Miguel Rodriguez, Senior Fellow at ICTSD, will be the moderator of the panel on A2K and tnternational trade and Ahmed Abdel Latif, Programme Manager for IP and Sustainable Sevelopment, will moderate the panel on A2K and the WIPO Development Agenda.  
 
The International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) is one of the organizers of A2K3.

This year’s A2K conference coincides with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) annual assemblies, being held in Geneva later that month.

The A2K3 conference is free and open to the public. Advance registration is required and will be available at http://isp.law.yale.edu/