Creative Commons Canada

[Robert Guerra <rguerra AT lists.privaterra.org>]

--
Robert Guerra <rguerra AT privaterra.org>
Managing Director, Privaterra <http://www.privaterra.org>




Begin forwarded message:

> From: Robin Gross <robin AT ipjustice.org>
> Date: July 14, 2005 11:01:45 AM EDT (CA)
> To: Robin Gross <robin AT ipjustice.org>
> Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] Request for support for reform at WIPO -  
> Group NGO stmt supporting Development Agenda available for sign-on
> Reply-To: plenary AT wsis-cs.org
>
>
> Dear colleagues,
>
> Apologies for the cross-posting, but ....
>
> Attached and below is a statement for publication at next week's  
> WIPO Development Agenda Meeting.  Civil society groups are invited  
> to sign-on to the statement to show support for reform at WIPO, and  
> specifically, support for the Friends of Development proposal.
>
> Background info on the WIPO Development Agenda meeting is posted at:
>  http://www.ipjustice.org/WIPO/WIPO_DA.shtml
>
> If your NGO would like to sign-on in support of this statement,  
> please send me an email (robin AT ipjustice.org) and indicate the NGO  
> name and country in which your NGO is based.
>
> Please send your support for this statement by TUESDAY 19 JULY so  
> we can publish this on Wednesday JULY 20th at the beginning of 3rd  
> IIM of the Development Agenda meeting at WIPO.
>
> And please distribute this statement as widely as possible and  
> encourage other groups to please sign-on, so we can show the WIPO  
> delegates that public-interest groups support reform at WIPO.
>
> Within the next day or so, this group statement (and translations)  
> will also be posted to the web at:
>  http://www.ipjustice.org/WIPO/NGO_Statement.shtml
> and supporting NGO names will be added there as they come in.
>
> Our statement would be much more effective if we had it translated  
> into other languages - particularly Spanish, French, German,  
> Italian, and Portuguese.  If anyone is able to translate this  
> document into any of these languages (or others), please let me  
> know asap.  We'd like to distribute hard-copies of these  
> translations at the 20-22 July meeting also, so will need the  
> translations completed by the 19th so we can make copies in Geneva  
> for distribution on the 20th.
>
> Thank you!!
> Robin Gross
> robin AT ipjustice.org
> IP Justice
>
> ===============================================
>
> We, the undersigned public interest non-governmental organizations  
> support the adoption of the proposal submitted by the Group of  
> Friends of Development (FoD) for a Development Agenda at the World  
> Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
>
> Specifically, we call attention to the following principles in the  
> FoD proposal and recommend that Member States:
>
> 1.   AMEND THE WIPO CONVENTION (1967) TO EXPRESSLY INCORPORATE A  
> DEVELOPMENT DIMENSION, CONSISTENT WITH WIPO OBLIGATIONS AS A UN AGENCY
>
> Public interest NGOs fully support Proposal 1 of the adopted Work  
> Plan (Annex to Summary of Chair), which proposes amending the WIPO  
> Convention to include explicit language incorporating a development  
> dimension and the specific language for such change set forth in WO/ 
> GA/31/11, appendix 3.
>
> The 1974 agreement between the United Nations and WIPO established  
> WIPO as a specialized agency of the UN family with responsibility  
> for “promoting creative intellectual activity and for facilitating  
> the transfer of technology related to industrial property to the  
> developing countries in order to accelerate economic, social and  
> cultural development, subject to the competence and  
> responsibilities of the United Nations and its organs . . . .”
>
> Amending WIPO’s mandate will enhance and inscribe a development  
> dimension into the organization’s core, ensuring WIPO will maintain  
> its responsibility to the UN and promote the public interest, first  
> and foremost.
>
> 2.  CONSIDER ELABORATION OF A TREATY ON ACCESS TO KNOWLEDGE AND  
> TECHNOLOGY
>
> We fully support Proposal 3 of the adopted Work Plan that calls on  
> Member States to consider elaboration of a Treaty on Access to  
> Knowledge and Technology.
>
> Access to knowledge and information sharing are fundamental to  
> education and research and to fostering innovation and creativity.  
> A treaty setting out user freedoms would address “the need to  
> maintain a balance between the rights of authors and the larger  
> public interest, particularly education, research and access to  
> information, as reflected in the Berne Convention” as set out in  
> the Preamble to the WIPO Copyright Treaty.
>
> A treaty on access to knowledge and technology would be a key  
> component in policy interventions to alleviate the situation in  
> disadvantaged countries and would be of benefit to the overall  
> socio-economic and political development of a country.
>
>
>
> 3.  ESTABLISH AN INDEPENDENT WIPO EVALUATION AND RESEARCH OFFICE  
> (WERO)
>
> Public interest NGOs fully support Proposal 5 of the adopted Work  
> Plan that calls for the establishment of WERO.
>
> The creation of an independent research office that would report  
> directly to the General Assembly is an important component to the  
> reform mandated by the General Assembly’s adoption of the  
> Development Agenda. The creation of WERO would strengthen the  
> oversight function of Member States at WIPO, enhance the  
> credibility of WIPO and its programmess, and would comply with  
> established international practice in other organizations such as  
> the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
>
> As set forth in the FoD Proposal, the establishment of WERO would  
> provide a transparent, independent and objective body that would  
> evaluate all WIPO programmes and activities with respect to their  
> development impact in general and their impact on innovation,  
> creativity and dissemination of knowledge and technology; assess  
> the development impact of all proposed norm-setting activities in  
> WIPO; and monitor and evaluate all WIPO technical assistance  
> activities based on guidelines established by the General Assembly.
>
> 4.  ADOPT PRINCIPLES AND GUIDELINES FOR THE TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE  
> PROGRAMME
>
> We fully support the proposals which relate to Technical  
> Assistance. These are Proposal 4 to Formulate and Adopt Principles  
> and Guidelines for the Development and Implementation of Technical  
> Assistance; Proposal 10 to Improve Information Sharing on Technical  
> Assistance; and Proposal 14 to Develop Indicators and Benchmarks  
> for the Evaluation of WIPO Technical Assistance.
>
> We believe that these proposals would enhance the value of  
> technical assistance to developing countries by providing  
> opportunities to review technical assistance programmes and keep  
> them fresh, to include new or alternative business and software  
> models and to ensure that a cross-section of stakeholder interests  
> are represented. Consultation with a wide range of groups such as  
> libraries, educators, people with disabilities and consumers, as  
> well as creators and rightsholders would help to build capacity and  
> improve governance, a key component of the 2005 Report of the  
> Commission for Africa.
>
> 5.  REFORM WIPO NORMS AND PRACTICES:
>
>     A.  Weigh the costs and benefits of copyright, patent and  
> trademark rights
>
> Public interest NGOs fully support Proposal 7 of the adopted Work  
> Plan to formulate and adopt principles and guidelines for norm- 
> setting activities in WIPO. WIPO must acknowledge the costs and  
> benefits of both information monopolies and harmonization.
>
> Continuously expanding the scope and level of copyright, patent and  
> trademark rights creates real social and economic costs. Norm- 
> setting activities must follow guidelines that balance public  
> access and competition policies against monopoly rights in  
> knowledge and information, and that weigh the economic cost of  
> maintaining and enforcing these systems against the relative  
> benefits in each country.
>
> In order to reach effective results that meet the challenges of  
> global development, internationally agreed upon developmental  
> standards should serve as benchmarks for WIPO norm-setting  
> activities to meet. The United Nations Millennium Development  
> Goals,  which all 191 UN Member States have pledged to meet,  
> establish development standards that copyright, patent and  
> trademark laws should seek to facilitate.
>
>     B.  Copyright, patent and trademark rights are not ends in  
> themselves and must foster   the public goals of innovation,  
> creativity and technical development
>
> Public interest NGOs fully support Proposal 8 of the adopted Work  
> Plan to undertake independent, evidence-based “development impact  
> assessments.”
>
> International instruments recognize the underlying public goals of  
> copyright, patent and trademark laws. The WIPO Copyright Treaty  
> recognizes that copyright law serves “to maintain a balance between  
> the interests of authors and the larger public interest,  
> particularly education, research, and access to information.”   
> Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) Art. 7  
> explicitly stipulates a balanced and harmonious outlook between  
> these rights and the public interest.
>
> It is essential that copyright, patent and trademark rights foster  
> innovation, creativity and technical development. WIPO must adopt a  
> framework that can ensure that these information monopolies advance  
> public goals in developing countries. The FoD proposal for a  
> Development Agenda at WIPO provides an excellent blueprint to begin  
> this reform.
>
>     C.  “One size (XL) fits all” approach to copyright, patent and  
> trademark rights does not foster development in all countries
>
> International norms for copyright, patent and trademark rights need  
> to take into account different levels of development to ensure that  
> the primary rationale for granting the rights, to promote societal  
> development by encouraging technological innovation, is actually  
> accomplished.
>
> Expansive copyright, patent and trademark rights disproportionately  
> favor wealthy developed countries and perpetuate the current  
> imbalance in access to and control of knowledge and information.  
> Copyright, patent and trademark laws must reflect each country’s  
> development needs to better facilitate access to information and  
> knowledge throughout the world. Such access is strongly called for  
> in the “Doha Plan of Action” agreed by the Heads of State and  
> Government of the Group of 77 and China  and in the “Declaration of  
> Principles” of the World Summit on the Information Society .
>
> All countries have a right to make their own economic development  
> strategies, which are inherently value based. Articles 1 and 8 of  
> TRIPS recognize both national sovereignty concerning development  
> strategies and national values.   WIPO’s “one-size-fits-all”  
> approach improperly assumes that western intellectual property  
> policy embodies universal values.
>
>     D.  Copyright, patent and trademark laws need to protect  
> flexibilities and limitations
>
> International instruments and developed countries’ own copyright,  
> trademark and patent laws provide for flexibilities and limitations  
> that ensure the promotion of social values. Competition policy,  
> compulsory licenses for medicine, and fair use exceptions  
> demonstrate that monopoly rights can be curtailed to achieve public  
> benefits.
>
> Countries need to have policy space to meet national developmental  
> priorities. Creative expression is value driven and copyright,  
> patent and trademark law governs what type of creative expression  
> is either permissible or infringing, and what type of creative  
> expression is “protectable” and to what extent. Since all Member  
> States have a natural right to exercise their own values and the  
> legal system is the principal means through which society can  
> assert its values, all nations have a natural right to make value  
> choices regarding their own level of copyright, patent and  
> trademark rights.
>
> WIPO technical assistance should promote the full range of  
> flexibilities provided by TRIPS, including education and promotion  
> of non-proprietary free and open access development models.
>
>     E.  More transparent and Member driven with ongoing public  
> interest participation
>
> Public interest NGOs fully support Proposals 6 and 9 of the adopted  
> Work Plan which, respectively, seek to ensure wider participation  
> of public interest NGOs at WIPO, and to establish a system of  
> holding public hearings prior to the initiation of norm-setting  
> activities.
>
> The FoD proposal initiates an important dialogue on making  
> fundamental changes to ensure that WIPO is truly Member driven, as  
> the majority of WIPO constituents are from developing countries. In  
> order to progress as a Member-driven organization, WIPO must  
> address the development concerns of its Members in all aspects of  
> its work.

Attachment: NGO.Stmt.Development.Agenda.FINAL.doc
Description: MS-Word document

>