WIPO performs three main functions • Registration of owners • Promote intergovernmental cooperation • Provide technical assistance to countries • WTO – TRIPS (Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) - Adopts existing agreements by embracing • National treatment and MFN principles • Minimum terms for protection • Local enforcement 20 Prepared by: Prof.Michael Lindsay WIPO should become “IPR agnostic” and not insist on blindly promoting intellectual property rights out of a simple belief that “more is better.” WIPO should explore new models of rewarding creativity and promote whatever models encourage the creation and dissemination of knowledge and culture. Although WIPO was originally established explicitly to promote the protection of intellectual property, when it joined the UN family in 1974 its objective had to be redefined as a public-interest or humanitarian goal. Furthermore, on any particular issue, not only top WIPO staff but also the chair of the relevant WIPO committee wield the power to drive the organisation’s agenda through the framing of the debate in that committee. Some, as noted, even claim to have “silent approval” as they bang the gavel to close the meeting, even after a number of explicit objections are raised. Another example is the proposed broadcasting treaty, where a WIPO committee chair is willing to ignore the explicit objections of member states and claim he has “silent approval”, thus attempting to circumvent WIPO’s consensus-based decision-making structure. However, a growing number of member states send women to participate at WIPO as part of their delegations, and many of these women provide leadership in an unofficial but remarkably successful fashion. The election of the chair is the first item on the agenda of meetings. The UN and its member states must together reform WIPO to more accurately reflect the global public interest. At the 2006 WIPO General Assembly, member states rejected the controversial recommendation of SCCR Chairman Liedes to convene a diplomatic conference and instead called for two additional meetings in 2007 to try to reach agreement on the many points of contention. Countries such as the US appear to be guaranteed key posts at WIPO in order to direct global IPR policy in the interest of the US more effectively. WIPO should pass an Access to Knowledge (A2K) Treaty [12] that encourages the use of technology to promote education and individual empowerment. It seeks to develop a balanced and accessible International Intellectual Property system, which rewards creativity, stimulates innovations, and contributes to economic development while safeguarding public interests. Available from: < www.wipo.int>. Even the US dropped its support for the proposal at the September 2006 SCCR meeting after the US technology industry began to complain about the draft’s harmful impact on technological innovation. Committee chairs decide which proposals become text for a treaty and which proposals are deleted from draft treaty texts; they decide how the proposals are framed, and whether or not civil society may speak at WIPO meetings. It is also a forum in which the Secretariat and chairs are given a great deal of power to circumvent the wishes of the member states. It is often the wealthy countries and blocs, particularly the US and Europe, whose opinions matter and who drive the agenda at WIPO. [7] The top officials at WIPO on each of the substantive issues of copyrights, patents, and trademarks are all men. Among other ambitions, the WCT and WPPT gave copyright owners the unprecedented right to use technological restrictions to control the use of digital media by making it illegal to bypass those restrictions. The FoD proposal also calls on WIPO to live up to its role as a UN specialised agency by promoting the public interest and development concerns in all WIPO activities. As noted above, NGOs may participate in WIPO deliberations as observers, upon completion of a prescribed process. And WIPO’s practice of sending controversial discussions such as the proposed broadcasting treaty to secretive regional consultations, where civil society cannot attend, reflects poorly on WIPO’s record on transparency. WIPO (1967). Despite the lack of concrete recommendations for a second year in a row, the WIPO General Assembly in 2006 voted for the third time to hold discussion of proposals for a Development Agenda at WIPO. 813 persone ne parlano. In theory, WIPO’s strategic direction and activities are decided by the member states, but in practice, the WIPO Secretariat, based in Geneva, is given enormous power to influence and direct the work and objectives of the organisation under the WIPO Convention. […] It is time that UN officials realise what has been going on at WIPO in the UN’s good name for the last fifteen years. Under the UDRP most ICANN-accredited generic top-level domain name (gTLD) registrars – and the country code top-level domain name (ccTLD) registration authorities that have adopted the policy [4] – are contractually bound to submit to arbitration through WIPO’s Arbitration and Mediation Centre. And representatives from the poorest nations remain in their capital city and rely on communications with Geneva to try to keep on top of what is happening at WIPO. Prior to his appointment as WIPO Director General, Mr. Tang served as Chief Executive of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS). Official Facebook Page of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Available from: < www.wipo.int>. For example, the right under international law that member states have to enact limitations and exceptions to exclusive rights is inadequately addressed. Since intellectual property rights are ultimately private rights, their promotion is the promotion of private interests, mainly those of major record labels, movie studios, publishing houses, and large pharmaceutical companies. World Intellectual Property Organization: The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is a United Nations (U.N.) agency charged with protecting intellectual property (IP) through an international system that promotes and sustains creativity and innovation and helps develop international economies. Thus WIPO announced that it intends to embark on a whole new “Internet Treaty” to regulate webcasting and the transmission of audio and video programming over the internet. 3 Pursuant to the said decision of the WIPO General Assembly, and in accordance with the recommendation by the Consultation Meeting on Enforcement, held in Geneva from September 11 to … The first meeting would address the 40 controversial proposals identified by Chairman Gauto Vielman, and the second would address the remaining 71 proposals that are mostly from developing countries. The DMCA is very controversial in the US since its overbroad anti-circumvention provisions have been invoked to prevent competition in markets unrelated to copyright, stifle criticism about technical weaknesses, and force consumers to pay extra to engage in otherwise lawful uses of digital media. literary, or artistic fields. Forthcoming Laws. WIPO’s main goal at WSIS appeared to be to prevent any serious discussion about the appropriate balance of intellectual property rights in cyberspace. Pharma Companies Awards List- PHARMA BUSINESS EXCELLENCE AWARDS; Top List of Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Companies Types; Pharma Related Associations You should know – Pharmaceutical Business Federations India; The passage of the WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) (WIPO, 1996a) and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT) (WIPO, 1996b) marked an important change for WIPO’s involvement in setting ICT regulation (and for copyright law). WIPO’s UDRP, which adjudicates trademark infringement disputes for domain names, has also come under growing criticism. If WIPO were more financially dependent upon the UN to carry out its work programme, its work programme would be more closely aligned with the UN’s humanitarian objectives. Because digital technology inherently requires making copies of data, copyright rules are automatically triggered in the digital environment. Top WIPO posts, such as the deputy director general for copyrights, are successively held by representatives of the US government. These attempts to silence NGO voices are nothing new. Liedes and European officials continue to push for an “exclusive rights” approach even though the 2006 General Assembly voted that treaty discussions should take a “signal theft” approach. Available from: < www.wipo.int>. WIPO is unique among UN organisations in that its activities are largely self-funded. [10], The Geneva Declaration called upon WIPO to reform its “culture of creating and expanding monopoly privileges, often without regard to the consequences.” The declaration said that WIPO’s “continuous expansion of these privileges and their enforcement mechanisms has led to grave social and economic costs, and has hampered and threatened other important systems of creativity and innovation.”. Specifically, the WCT/WPPT require member states to provide adequate legal protection and effective legal remedies against the circumvention of technological restrictions used to protect a copyrighted work. Consequently, a deal was reached that removed the US webcasting provisions in exchange for a promise to bring them back in 2007 in the form of a much larger and more encompassing treaty to deal with internet transmissions of media. The 2004 WIPO General Assembly adopted the resolution for the establishment of a Development Agenda to reform WIPO’s practice of blindly increasing intellectual property rights: Intellectual property protection cannot be seen as an end in itself, nor can the harmonisation of intellectual property laws leading to higher protection standards in all countries, irrespective of their levels of development. The WTO’s TRIPS Agreement was signed in 1994, and states in its preamble the desire to “establish a mutually supportive relationship between the WTO and the World Intellectual Property Organisation.” (WTO, 1994) In 1996 the WTO and WIPO signed a cooperation agreement to facilitate the implementation of the TRIPS Agreement. chiefly in inventions, trademarks, and industrial designs; and This is intended only for service usage tracking purposes. WIPO should not favour traditional business models over innovative new models in its work programme, and it should refocus its efforts on promoting creativity and innovation by whatever means possible. Patents and trade secrets are increasingly used in technical standards, so such rules are similarly growing in importance in setting ICT policy. To perform administrative tasks 3. At some level, however, it is the member states who must take responsibility for allowing the WIPO Secretariat and chairs to get away with so much. As described above, WIPO has worked closely with ICANN to set its UDRP policy to deal with infringement claims over domain names and to institute provisions that privilege trademark holders with early registration and cancellation rights for new domain names. 4.3 Consensus-based decisions problematic. The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) assists applicants in seeking patent protection internationally for their inventions, helps patent offices with their patent granting decisions, and facilitates public access to a wealth of technical information relating to those inventions. Other main functions of it are: Improving national legislation in the field of Intellectual Property (IP) using the experience of … Convention, on the question of double taxation of copyright royalties. Candidates are encouraged to check the options of language, deadlines, training location, duration, and … I believe I will make a significant contribution.Agapé, hi can this be referred as the objective of the wipo in general, The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) forum. WIPO was established in 1967 by the WIPO Convention, which states that WIPO’s objective was “to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world …” (WIPO, 1967, Article 3). Under these so-called “sunrise” provisions, trademark holders are given the right to pre-register their name before anyone else can. This has much to do with the evolving role of intellectual property rights in general. In the past, however, the US and the EU have been allowed to participate in other region's meetings, such as the African Group's regional meetings, to help convince African countries to pass certain WIPO treaties. WIPO tends to hire and work with people who hold the viewpoint of industry and who therefore tend to be IPR “maximalists” in their training and perspective. Public-interest NGOs, particularly those from developing countries, should be allowed to speak at the meetings and make their papers available, and more WIPO seminars and technical assistance programmes should include speakers from public-interest NGOs and developing nations. Even with the removal of webcasting provisions from the text of the proposed broadcasting treaty, the draft treaty still regulates all internet retransmissions of broadcast programming. A WIPO press release in October 2006 announced that its Arbitration and Mediation Centre, which accredits the dispute resolution service providers, had decided its 25,000th case, ordering the transfer of the domain name to the trademark owner. The DMCA, in particular, is often referenced at WIPO and by large intellectual property rights holders as the “model” for implementing these treaties, despite its extremity. Bio-Piracy 6. While WIPO’s financial autonomy is in some senses an asset, there can be unintended negative consequences. As noted above, the controversial proposal to create unprecedented new rights for broadcasting companies represents another opportunity for WIPO to regulate ICTs. The objectives of the system are two-fold. WIPO regional meetings take place completely outside of the public eye, and accredited NGOs are not permitted to attend or participate in regional meetings without a special invitation from WIPO. Although ICANN’s Generic Names Supporting Organisation (GNSO) Policy Council voted in April 2006 that the purpose of the WHOIS database is narrow and only technical, large intellectual property holders continue to argue that the database of personal information must remain open to all in order to protect intellectual property interests. Daren Tang Assumes Functions as WIPO Director General. Besides the UDRP, WIPO and ICANN have also implemented policies dealing with the introduction of new gTLDs that give trademark holders special rights to preemptively register and challenge registrations of new gTLDs. WIPO has responded by “circling the wagons” and obstructing the attempts for reform. Available from: < www.icann.org>. The General Assembly agreed to hold two week-long sessions in 2007 to discuss the 111 proposals made thus far. Indeed issues about the appropriate balance for intellectual property rights in cyberspace were prominently on the agenda at the inaugural IGF meeting in Athens in November 2006, although WIPO officials did not play a large role in those discussions. Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy [online]. And because the internet provides a new forum for infringement of copyright and trademark, intellectual property rules have been catapulted into prominence. In the past, intellectual property rules did not apply to personal communication technologies, since they mainly concerned large publishing houses or major companies. resulting from intellectual activity in the industrial, scientific, But a woman has yet to be elected the chairperson of the copyright committee or Development Agenda negotiations. Before the 1990s WIPO played a minimal role in setting rules in the area of information and communications technologies (ICTs). Since the 1996 agreement, the WTO and WIPO have launched two additional technical cooperation agreements in 1998 and 2001 to spur developing nations into conforming with the TRIPS requirements in their national laws. WIPO tends to favour funding innovation via traditional IPR business models over innovative new models for rewarding creativity. WIPO could be more accurately described as a forum in which the loudest or most insistent voices from the wealthy countries prevail. WTO (1974). The Office also collaborates with public and private sector interest groups and WIPO to facilitate training, human resource development and institutional strengthening in various aspects of IPRs and developing sector-specific programmes. WIPO/ACE/1/5 page 2 Special Projects Division also provides administrative support for the maintenance of the Electronic Forum, which is of particular importance for the subject matter of this document. However, the lack of transparency over WIPO’s technical assistance programmes is a real problem. But despite its obligation to the UN, WIPO officials still point to the 1967 WIPO Convention to state WIPO’s purpose as: “to promote the protection of intellectual property” (WIPO, 1967). the wealthiest member states, including the United States and Europe – refused to endorse any of the proposals, again preventing consensus and any progress on a Development Agenda. 8. This is particularly true at WIPO’s highest levels, and the culture easily permeates on down throughout the entire organisation. The WIPO Internet Treaties of 1996 were only the beginning for WIPO’s involvement in ICT policy-making. The situation becomes particularly problematic for delegates in voting for a new committee chair, since they do not wish to offend. phonograms; broadcasts; inventions in all fields of human endeavor; Member state delegates also complain about the one-on-one “arm-twisting” sessions they have to endure from WIPO officials on policy matters. More informally, the SCCR Secretariat has reduced (or eliminated in some cases) the coffee breaks between formal consultations, which is particularly important because that is often the only time for civil society representatives to talk with delegates about the issues. Function of IPR 3. 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