WIPO: Home, sweet home
Arrived in Geneva after trip that wasn’t too long (roughly nine hours door to door), but somehow exhausting. I found the City Hostel Geneva much like I left it last July. At least, this time I got the bed beside the window, which means that I’m in control of the fresh air supply and the heating. Good.
Though I missed the first day of the WIPO meeting I’m here for – the Provisional Committee on a Development Agenda for WIPO, or PCDA for short – I suppose I haven’t deprived myself of too many exciting things. Probably just discussions about the agenda again, like every first day of every first meeting. (I bet the German mission sent their intern again to sit through the boredom.)
So what’s the situation there? There are three new proposals I know of, and some recycled from the Intersessional Intergovernmental Meetings in 2005. Chile has one on the importance of the public domain, which is much in line with the Friends of Development – the group that wants to reform WIPO.
Another one is from Colombia. It limits itself to proposing that patent offices in developing countries should get access to commercial patent databases, so as to more easily identify prior art. Not really revolutionary.
Rather counter-revolutionary is how the US proposal comes across, and this is no surprise. They are presenting a more elaborate version of their website database proposal from the last round of IIMs. It basically recommends setting up a website where countries in need of licenses can go looking for private sector donors. I don’t like to call this institutionalised begging, but no other term comes to mind.
Oh, and for good measure they suggested conducting a study to prove the benefits of strict copyright protection for developing countries. Some study that will turn out to be.
Now, on Tuesday morning, we are waiting for the meeting to begin. It seems that the EU has come up with a common position. But, as EU positions go, it probably won’t be too fascinating.
I’m curious to see if there will be substantive discussion, after yesterday the country delegates almost killed themselves looking for a chairman.