In a major initiative on the Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) front, India hosted the first-ever International Meeting on Intellectual Property and Development: Issues Related to the Development Agenda. The 3-day (5-7 February) meeting was . The 3-day (5-7 February 2007) meeting, inaugurated by Dr. Ajay Dua, Secretary (DIPP), was organised by the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP), in association with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and National Intellectual Property Organisation (NIPO).

India underlined the importance of working out an actionable plan to mainstream development into the agenda of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) to address IPR-related concerns of developing countries. The proposal to establish a Development Agenda for the WIPO is one of the most important initiatives taken by developing countries to ensure that the international intellectual property system evolves in a manner which is favourable for developing countries and reflects their concerns.

At present, there are 111 proposals made by WIPO member countries on what should constitute the Development Agenda.

The need for consolidating the diverse proposals into a cohesive doable agenda and expressed the hope that by facilitating exchange of views and perspectives on the proposed constituents of the Agenda was stressed.

Around 22 countries representing both the developed and developing world participated in this important event including Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Poland, Romania, Switzerland, UK and USA.

Spread over the next 2 days, there were presentations by distinguished international and national participants on the following themes representing key elements of the proposed Development Agenda viz., Technical Assistance and Capacity Building; Flexibilities, Public Policy and Public Domain; Technology Transfer, ICT and Access to Knowledge; Assessments, Evaluation and Impact Studies; and Institutional Matters including Mandate and Governance.

(IPRs) important proposals AT A GLANCE

• Proposal to strengthen WIPO’s technical cooperation programme, taking into account the different levels of development of member states in designing, delivering and evaluating technical assistance.

• To create a WIPO Partnership Programme Database, an internet-based tool to facilitate the strategic use of intellectual property by developing countries by bringing together all stakeholders to match specific IPR-related development needs with available resources, thereby amplifying the impact of intellectual property development assistance.

• To devise innovative ways and means, including the fostering of transfer of technology, to enable SMEs take better advantage of flexibilities as provided by relevant international agreements and to explore policies, initiatives and reforms necessary to ensure the transfer and dissemination of technology to the benefit of developing countries.

• To approach intellectual property enforcement in the context of broader societal interests and development-related concerns, in accordance with Article 7 of the TRIPs Agreement.

Participants from 22 countries were generally in favour of carrying forward the Development Agenda and were also of the opinion that some kind of harmonization could be brought in by merging some of the proposals to address concerns of all stakeholders for expeditious consideration in the ensuing meeting of the WIPO Provisional Committee on Development Agenda.

Discussions were held on 6 clusters in which all the 111 proposals were categorised. The major issues discusses were: Technical Assistance and Capacity Building; Norm-setting, Flexibilities, Public Policy and Public Domain; Technology Transfer, Information and Communication Technology and Access to Knowledge; Assessments, Evaluation and Impact Studies; Institutional matters including Mandate and governance.