Although I could not attend the last day in person, from this article on IP-Watch it appears that the Development Agenda process has apparently been derailed by yesterdays breakup [1, 2] as a reaction to the proposal of the chair.
As our first analysis showed, that proposal appeared to contain none of the priority items of the Development Agenda, and is largely identical to the activities supported by the United States and the European Union. But many countries did not appear to have the time and resources to perform such analysis, also since some of their more experienced negotiators were participating in the WTO negotiations, which were running in parallel.
In effect, some of the Central and Eastern European Countries, some Arab states, and parts of the Africa group seem to have been split away from supporting substantial WIPO reform by the proposal. But the Friends of Development showed no inclination to yield to the massive pressure put on them. Faced with a “accept some shiny glass marbles, or be called names and get nothing” choice, they chose nothing, so that negotiations could continue in the future.
According to IP-Watch, that is what many member states, including a representative of a European Union member state said: The negotiations are expected to continue. And if it weren’t for the Kyrgyz representative, the chairs proposal would be off the table now, but apparently Kyrgyztan decided to adopt the orphaned paper, and it is now yet another proposal in the mix of all the proposals that were put forward so far.
Only the next WIPO general assembly should show how and in which form this process may continue.
