WIPO - Strategic Use of Intellectual Property for Development and Protection of Traditional Knowledge - Presentation

Slide 1: Foundations

Slide 2: WIPO Today

• Status: An intergovernmental organization
• Member States: 183
• Staff: 915 from 94 countries
• Treaties Administered: 23
• Guiding Principles:
  • Transparency
  • Accountability
  • Consensus

Slide 3: Objectives of WIPO

• Promotion of intellectual property protection worldwide
• Promotion of creative and intellectual activity
• Facilitation of technology transfer and dissemination of literary and artistic works
• Modernization and strengthening of administrative systems

Slide 4: Activities

• Registration
• Intergovernmental Cooperation in the Administration of Intellectual Property
• Programs

Slide 5: Treaties Administered by WIPO

• Three Categories
  • Intellectual Property Protection
  • Global Protection System
  • Classification Systems and Procedures
• Principal - 23
  • Industrial Property - 16
  • Copyright - 7

Slide 6: Industrial Property Treaties

• Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property
• Patent Cooperation Treaty
• Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks and Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks
• Hague Agreement Concerning the International Deposit of Industrial Designs
• Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellations of Origin and their International Registration

Slide 7: PCT - Growth over the Years

Slide 8: WIPO's Income: 2006-2007

Total: 531 million Swiss Francs (670 million NZD)

Slide 9: "Poles" of Activity

• Assistance in modernization of intellectual property legislation - compliance with TRIPS
• Partnership in intellectual property administration and automation
• Knowledge creation
• Demystification of intellectual property in the context of emerging global issues.

Slide 10: Special Focus Areas

• Requirements of Least Developed Countries
• Copyright collective management
• Small and Medium Sized Enterprises
• Human Resource Development

Slide 11: Intellectual Property and Economic Development

Slide 12: Intellectual Property - New Imperative and Focus Shift

• Earlier, emphasis on
  • strengthening legal infrastructure/IP offices
  • capacity building and HRD
• After TRIPS, assistance extended contributed to
  • better understanding of IP concepts
  • greater use of system

Slide 13: [Intellectual Property - New Imperative and Focus Shift (Cont'd)]

• New aim: capitalize on technical/legal assistance rendered for more economic, social and cultural deliverables
• Not merely to preserve market exclusivity but to build strategic partnerships
• IP assets - investment, not business costs
• Use different elements of IP for Economic and Cultural Development and to enhance Growth Competitiveness

Slide 14: Patents and Technological Development

• Facilitate transfer and investment
• Disseminate initial knowledge as free input ("public good") to produce further knowledge as output ("private good")
• Limit "free riders" not "innovators"
• Encourage licensing arrangements
• Catalyze new technologies and businesses

Slide 15: How Trade Marks Create Economic Value

• Increase sales volumes and price
• Stabilize demand through consumer relationships
• Earn royalties through licensing and franchising
• Transfer brand equity to new product categories

Slide 16: Copyright and Economic Development

• Protects creativity and ensures adequate recompense for creators and producers
• Balances public with private interest
• Preserves cultural heritage
• Prevents creation from being reproduced elsewhere and competing with original
• Enhances economic growth

Slide 17: Strategic Use of IP for Development

• Move from basic infrastructure needs to effective exploitation of assets
• At the macro-level examine interface between IP protection and growth
• Test, validate, challenge assumptions
• Enable SMEs to intensify IP use and expand role in employment generation, investment, exports
• Development/management of IP assets primary concern for private enterprises - technology and cultural industries sector

Slide 18: Some Elements

• Strengthened documented evidence on the effects of IP protection on economic development
• Development of conceptual frameworks, methodologies, indices to assess IP situations at national level
• Enhanced international exchange of research results
• Partnerships with stakeholders

Slide 19: Some Elements (Cont'd)

• Improved capacity by SME support institutions to deliver IP services to their units
• Strengthened ability of businesses and research institutions to develop and manage IP assets
• Greater awareness on financial support for IP asset development

Slide 20: WIPO Development Agenda

Slide 21: Development Agenda Process

• General Assembly 2004 welcomed initiative for a development agenda
• Convened inter-sessional intergovernmental (IIM) meetings to examine proposals
• Three sessions of the IIM held in 2005 to discuss 8 proposals submitted by Member States
• No Specific recommendations
• General Assembly 2005 discussed the issue and decided to constitute a PCDA to take the IIM process forward and accelerate discussions

Slide 22: [Development Agenda Process (Cont'd)]

• First Session held in February 2006
• Discussed 4 new proposals
• Decided to place the total number of 111 proposals, submitted in "operational and actionable" from, in six clusters:
  1. Technical Assistance and Capacity Building
  2. Norm-Setting, Flexibilities, Pub Policy and Public Domain
  3. Technology Transfer, ICT and Access to Knowledge
  4. Assessments, Evaluation and Impact Studies
  5. Institutional Matters incl. Mandate and Governance
  6. Other Issues

Slide 23: PCDA - Proposals Presented

Slide 24: Traditional Knowledge

Slide 25: Questions?

• What is Traditional Knowledge (TK)?
• Why is Protection of TK Important?
• What are the Problems facing TK holders?
• What is the Challenge?

Slide 26: WIPO's Response

• Roundtable on IP and indigenous peoples (1998)
• Panel discussion on IP and human rights (1998)
• 4 regional consultations on protection of folklore (1999)
• Cooperation with IGOs and NGOs
• Integration into WIPO's cooperation for development activities
• Roundtable on IP and TK (1999)
• Fact Finding Missions

Slide 27: Discussions in the SCP / Diplomatic Conference on the PLT - Proposal to Set Up a Distinct Body

Slide 28: Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore

Themes for the Committee -

• Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit- Sharing
• Protection of Traditional Knowledge
• Protection of Expressions of Folklore, including Handicrafts

Slide 29: Cross-Cutting Issues

• Operation of established forms of IP protection
• Underlying principles of IP law
• Experiences with sui generis forms of legal protection

Slide 30: Interaction of IP Law with Non-IP Legal Systems

International

• IP systems and CBD
• FAO International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture
• existing and emerging instruments dealing with cultural heritage and cultural diversity - UNESCO conventions

Domestic

• contract law
• environmental protection law
• cultural heritage law
• laws governing access to biological resources and protected territories
• laws concerned with Indigenous people

Slide 31: Complementary Policy Objectives

• To develop a respect for TK
• To ensure that it is preserved and maintained
• To promote use in association with right holders
• To enable equitable sharing of benefits

Slide 32: Methodology

• Cooperation with IGOs
  • CBD, FAO, UNESCO, UNEP, WHO, Human Rights, UNCTAD
• Involvement of indigenous communities and civil society
• Fact-finding and consultation (from 1998)
• Analysis, research and awareness-raising
• Norm-building and capacity-strengthening

Slide 33: Some Examples

• Fact-finding and consultation - in 28 countries and over 3000 people
• Case-studies by indigenous and other experts
• Comments of indigenous participants directly reflected in current proposals

Slide 34: Some Examples (Cont'd)

• Fast track accreditation for over 120 NGOs to attend IGC
  • many representing indigenous and local communities
• Representatives of indigenous and local communities included on national delegations
• Each IGC session commences with a panel
  • chaired by an indigenous representative
  • focuses directly on needs/expectations of communities
• Positions of IGC observers are also disseminated through a dedicated website.

Slide 35: Some Examples (Cont'd)

• Voluntary Fund established for indigenous and local communities
  • Beneficiaries - members of indigenous or local communities/other representatives of customary holders or custodians of TK/TCEs
  • To meet travel and living expenses to participate in IGC/other related activities

Slide 36: Concrete Outcomes

• TK journals included in non-patent literature for examination of prior-art
• Several new sui generis laws adopted at national and regional levels
• Emergence of draft international provisions through open process - draw on national and regional experiences
• Draft provisions for protection of TK and TCEs circulated by WIPO as Information Resources and being discussed in present workshop

Slide 37: Thank You

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