2009 Assemblies – Member States Give Strong Support

The 2009 Assemblies of the Member States of WIPO – the first of Director General Francis Gurry’s mandate – marked the beginning of a new era for the Organization. The Assemblies ran from September 22 to October 1, and for the first time a high-level ministerial segment led off the series of meetings. Member States showed strong support for the Organization’s strategic goals throughout the event, and renewed the mandate of the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property, Traditional Knowledge, Folklore and Genetic Resources (IGC).

Transform ideas into reality

Mr. Gurry welcomed over 40 ministers to the high-level segment of the Assemblies, noting that their participation reflected the expanding recognition of “IP as a major means of creating a secure environment for investment in innovation and creativity and for the diffusion of innovative and creative products and services.” He urged the Organization’s 184 Member States: to work together to ensure the IP system serves as a stimulus for developing solutions to the global challenges confronting policymakers across the world; to find a “balanced way forward” in advancing the Organization’s norm-setting agenda; and to demonstrate flexibility and understanding in addressing the issues at hand.

The Director General outlined progress in the Organization’s strategic realignment program, and highlighted the initiatives launched to develop a service-oriented culture. Mr. Gurry noted that negative growth rates in WIPO’s registration and filing systems were anticipated for 2009 but that, while demand was expected to be sluggish through 2010, he was confident that 2011 would see positive growth. He said “it is clear that the long-term trend is one of intensified use of the IP system in which knowledge and education are at the center of the economy, development and social change.”

Mr. Gurry underlined that improving the capacity of developing and least developed countries (LDCs) to benefit from the knowledge economy was the principle underlying the adoption of the WIPO Development Agenda. “We are now at the stage where we must transform that idea into an operational reality,” he said. “That transformation will occur only if there is a collaborative effort and engagement on the part of the Member States and the Secretariat.” Mr. Gurry stressed the need for Member States and the Secretariat to “be ambitious and identify and execute projects that make a difference.”

The Director General appealed to Member States to seek common ground in advancing the normative work of the Organization as failure to do so would damage multilateralism and open the way to bilateral and plurilateral arrangements at a time when use of technologies is increasingly global. Mr. Gurry said, “Global use of technology calls for a global architecture of norms to ensure that technologies are indeed available everywhere.”

“If this Organization is to retain its relevance in rule making, we must be able to deal with all the frequencies of the spectrum of technological development,” Mr. Gurry said. “We must be able to make rules both for the latest developments in technology and for traditional knowledge systems.” In this regard, he called for the renewal of the mandate of the WIPO Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC) on terms that would lead to tangible results at the international level.

Mr. Gurry drew attention to “tumultuous developments” that signaled “a fundamental challenge for the institution of copyright.” He noted that, while the objective of copyright was to “provide a market-based mechanism that extracts some value from cultural transactions to enable creators to lead a dignified economic existence while at the same time ensuring the widest possible availability of affordable content,” the question was “how to realize that objective amid the convergence of the digital environment.” The Director General enjoined Member States to consider a “global consultation or reflection” in the coming year on the fundamental question of how to finance culture in the 21st century. In view of the global nature of piracy, he called on governments to reflect on “how we can make copyright work in a digital environment where there is no difference in quality between the original and the copy and where the means of reproduction and distribution are available to everyone at insignificant cost.”

The Director General cited some early concrete results in relation to the Organization’s new strategic objective: Coordination and Development of Global IP Infrastructure. These include digitization programs for IP offices in developing countries and the establishment of technology and innovation centers, as well as database tools offering LDCs access to scientific and technical publications free of charge.

The Director General referred to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) roadmap, accentuating that “it’s about finding ways to increase, on a voluntary basis, work sharing to decrease unnecessary inefficiencies and to improve the quality of the output of the international patent system and thereby contribute to management of the unsustainable backlog of 4.2 million unprocessed patent applications around the world.” Mr. Gurry stressed that it “is not a norm-making exercise.” He referred to various plurilateral initiatives to address this question stating that the “objective of the roadmap is to bring all of these initiatives under the multilateral umbrella of the PCT.”

Lastly, the Director General highlighted WIPO’s renewed engagement in debates on global public policy issues, such as climate change, stating that “technological innovation will be central to global efforts to deal with the challenges of climate change.” He added that “the experience of the IP system and the IP community in the creation and the commercialization and the diffusion or transfer of technology can make a very valuable contribution.”

Approved program and budget

Member States signaled strong support for the Organization’s strategic realignment with the endorsement of a program and budget for the 2010/11 biennium that boosts WIPO’s development-related activities, emphasizes the need to advance the Organization’s normative work and further upgrades its services to the private sector.

Member States approved a budgetary allocation for 2010/11 of CHF 618 million, which represents a 1.6 percent (CHF 9.8 million) decrease compared to the current financial period, reflecting the impact of the global economic crisis on WIPO’s services. Almost one-fifth (some CHF 118 million) of the Organization’s budget is allocated across programs for capacity-building and development-related activities to strengthen the participation of developing and least developed countries in the benefits of the knowledge economy. An additional CHF 4.5 million was specifically allocated for the implementation of Development Agenda projects.

The Assemblies also approved the construction of a new conference hall with a capacity of 900 seats as well as several new, smaller meeting rooms in the main headquarters building to cater for increasing demand for multilateral and bilateral consultations associated with WIPO meetings. Member States earmarked CHF 64 million for that project, to be covered from WIPO reserves (CHF 24 million) and the extension of an existing commercial loan (CHF 40 million). The new hall, designed by Behnisch Architekten of Stuttgart, Germany, gives priority to sustainability. Local wood, natural light, hybrid ventilation combining natural and mechanical means, and a cooling system drawing water from nearby Lake Léman are among the most significant environmentally-friendly features of the new hall.

Accelerated implementation of Development Agenda

Delegations strongly supported the project-based approach proposed by the Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP), which will accelerate efficient implementation of the Development Agenda. Member States reaffirmed their commitment to the Development Agenda, identified as a key priority for the Organization, and stressed the importance of ensuring adequate human and financial resources were allocated to its implementation. The CDIP is to develop a coordination mechanism for monitoring, assessing and reporting on the implementation of recommendations, and will submit a report on the subject to the 2010 General Assembly.

Standing Committees

Member States noted the status of work relating to the three issues currently under discussion within the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR): the rights of broadcasting organizations; the rights of performers in their audiovisual performances; and exceptions and limitations.

The General Assembly noted a report on the work of the Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP), including the Committee’s decision to commission five studies on: exclusions, exceptions and limitations, including a public policy, socioeconomic and developmental perspective; technical solutions to improve greater access to, and dissemination of, patent information; client-attorney privilege; transfer of technology; and opposition systems.

PCT Assembly appoints new authorities

The Assembly of the PCT appointed the Egyptian Patent Office and the Israel Patent Office as International Searching and Preliminary Examining Authorities under the PCT, bringing the total number of such offices to 17. The appointments become effective on dates to be notified by the offices.

Member States also adopted a number of amendments to the regulations under the PCT which will enter into force on July 1, 2010. These concern: clarification of the extent to which authorities may define the scope of the supplementary international search that will be offered; a requirement that applicants filing amendments indicate the basis of those amendments in the application as filed; and improvements to the process for establishing equivalent amounts of certain PCT fees in different currencies.

Madrid Union Assembly

The Madrid Union Assembly took note of the WIPO study on the possible introduction of additional filing languages – Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese and Russian – in the Madrid System for the International Registration of Marks, in a way that would be operationally and economically viable. Introducing additional filing languages would require specific agreements with the offices of interested contracting parties. As a first step, the Assembly approved the implementation of a pilot project involving the participation of interested offices.

Appellations of Origin

Members of the Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellations of Origin and their International Registration amended a number of rules governing that system to improve accessibility of information regarding the fate of international registrations in member countries. Interested parties will be able to more easily determine the status of protection of an internationally registered appellation of origin in a given member country, through a formal framework for communicating a “statement of grant of protection.”