Digital Rights Network

The 3 day WIPO intersessional intergovernmental meeting (IIM) on the development agenda ended today. The Agenda was proposed by Brazil and Argentina together with other developing nations last september at the WIPO general assembly. A previous post dealt with the Friends of Development submission to the IIM which along with 3 other submissions (Mexico -- IP is great, US -- what we need is a website, UK -- just observations, pretty vague) formed the basis for discussions. Overall the results were very positive:

• A whole group of civil-society NGOs got ad-hoc accreditation at the last minute (though ominous grumblings from the US and Italy about this not happening next time). This meant, perhaps for the first time in WIPO history, civil-society NGOs equalled rights-holder groups both in presence and in submissions (though probably not in weight ...).
• Among country delegations on a very rough count the FoD proposal had more supporters then detractors. However unsurprisingly most developed country groups either damned with faint praise or outright opposed the proposal.
• Most importantly, the benefits of having a positive agenda were clearly demonstrated. Discussion in WIPO is no longer solely about what the next IP extension should be. Instead the focus is on balance, development, access to knowledge, alternative models for innovation and creativity. The consequences were obvious: Rights-holder groups sounded weak now that they couldn't rant about the sanctity and importance of property and the absolute truth of IP = innovation. We get a great intervention from the WHO making clear that IP can/does negatively impact on access to the medicine (you can imagine what this does to the submissions from the pharma lobbyists).

Lamest submission: Sudan for their lengthy explication of the development benefits they'd gained from IP.

Most radical submission: India for their rousing call for balance and acknowledgement of the costs that monopoly rights impose (it is always pretty amazing that simply calling IP rights monopolies and emphasizing you need to balance costs and benefits pretty much makes you a radical at WIPO).

Most anti the development agenda: Singapore for their clear explication that really IP is great for development -- the only possible reason developing countries aren't getting the full benefits is that they aren't open enough to FDI (foreign direct investment).