Strategic Goal 7: Addressing IP in Relation to Global Policy Issues

Overall, the text of the revised MTSP on strategic goal 7 continues to be troubling. We request close re-examination of Strategic Goal 7 and extensive redrafting.

 

In DAG’s view, the text in goal 7 is very forward in assuming that WIPO already has the requisite knowledge about the role of IP with respect to global policy issues and that its role is to cement its leadership at this intersection among UN agencies and increase WIPO’s prominence in the global debates on these issues. The idea of member states asking WIPO to include issues of global challenges in its work was rather to bring external expertise on these issues to the realm of WIPO’s work, and to initiate a reflection of how the international IP system has to change to respond to the ongoing and new global challenges. These are in fact new issues for WIPO, and the newly created division in WIPO, should be aimed at finding more evidence to allow for a transparent and realistic debate among member states about this complex and uncertain relationship, rather than unilaterally pre-judging and determining the nature of WIPO’s role. Accordingly, WIPO should not, in the medium term, include as the strategic outcome “to make international discussions fully informed of IP as a policy tool for promoting innovation and technology transfer” when this is not a mandate that member-states have given WIPO with respect to global challenges. In our view, WIPO should in the first instance, explore how the international IP system must adapt to adequately respond to the growing complex social, economic and cultural challenges, including climate change and need for new technologies for adaptation and mitigation, food insecurity, misappropriation of traditional knowledge, folklore and GRs, and public health crisis affecting the developing and developed countries. We would therefore request that:

Outcome indicator 1 is redrafted as: “WIPO recognized as the leading UN agency on IP issues,”

Outcome indicator 3 is redrafted as: “IP-based mechanisms are part of the debate on global issues,”

Strategy (i) is deleted,

Strategy (iii) is redrafted as: “Developing partnerships and collaborations for facilitating the use of IP and means of mitigating barriers created by IP as a policy tool to achieve public welfare outcomes by promoting innovation, transfer and diffusion of key technologies to deal with global challenges such as climate change, food security, public health, etc. in line with the ongoing negotiations on specialized fora such as the UNFCCC, WHO and FAO”.

 

WIPO’s involvement in developing partnerships and collaborations in relation to global public policy issues such as climate change, pandemic threats, neglected diseases, crop production, etc. should again, not be driven by an objective to only promote the use of IP, as stated in the MTSP. Rather, WIPO’s involvement on these issues should be balanced and look at the relevance and role of IP in relation to these issues in consideration of differences between countries in their levels of development.

 

It must be ensured that WIPO’s contribution to these global public policy discussions is balanced and reflects the positions of all Member States, and that the position of WIPO on these issues is Member-State driven. It also needs to be spelt out how WIPO will work together with other organizations. It is insufficient to note that “partnerships” will be built; it must elaborate the basis for those partnerships. It must also spell out how the WIPO DA will guide the implementation of this goal.

 

The strategic outcome should therefore be redrafted as “promoting a balanced, evidence-based perspective on IP and global public policy issues”, and the outcome indicators should accordingly be redrafted to suggest what WIPO will do to accomplish that. This should include, increasing evidence-based studies on the interface between IP and global policy issues; increasing the number of joint events with other UN agencies each respecting their areas of main competence,; as well as mainstreaming of the DA by, for instance, examining the role of flexibilities and limitations and exceptions in addressing global challenges.

It is also noted that this section does not refer to important programs such as Innovation Promotion and Technology Transfer that are currently being undertaken under this goal. Innovation promotion and Technology transfer and issues of keen interest to all developing countries and address the development and global dimensions of IP. Hence, DAG considers it important that adequate importance be given to these issues under this section, which are currently missing. It is also necessary to link up the Strategic outcomes and the Programs on the ground.

 

Strategic Goal 9: An Efficient Administrative and Management Support Structure to enable WIPO to deliver its Mandate

 

In its submission of 12 July, 2010, on the draft MTSP, the DAG highlighted the key concerns it has with the issue of the language policy in WIPO. The Group requested that paragraph xi under the Strategies section stipulate the following:

 

“xi. Formulate a comprehensive language policy to address the language divide, and that aims to use all the six official languages of the United Nations, including as working languages, on a fair and equitable basis and responsive to the needs of Member States. The comprehensive language policy will be implemented gradually over this Medium Term, to be carried out systematically towards its full and complete implementation by the end of 2015. This comprehensive language policy will cover WIPO documents, publications, interpretation, and all WIPO web sites. WIPO will review all its legal instruments and related procedures to reflect this comprehensive language policy.”

 

 

(Attached to these comments is a track changed version of the MTSP 2010-2015, with additional specific text changes and additions.)

A/48/3 page 2

Proposed amendments by DAG

 

MISSION

The promotion of innovation and creativity for the economic, social and cultural development of all countries, through a balanced and accessible international intellectual property system

 

 

A/48/3 page 3

Proposed amendments by DAG

 

 

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