p2pnet - rss feed: Call to ‘unblinker’ WIPO
p2pnet.net News:- Five hundred scientists, economists, legal experts and consumer activists say the United Nations should relax protection for owners of copyright, patents and trademarks and pay more attention to the interests and needs of developing countries.
Accordingly, they’re backing a proposal, “by a group of developing countries to the UN body that oversees intellectual property, the World Intellectual Property Organization,” says the Associated Press.
WIPO’s mission statement says, ” The main objectives … remain constant: maintenance and further development of the respect for intellectual property throughout the world. This means that any erosion of the existing protection should be prevented, and that both the acquisition of the protection and, once acquired, its enforcement, should be simpler, cheaper and more secure”.
But, “campaigners claim WIPO … is blinkered and is only directed toward protecting the rich,” states the AP story. “They say intellectual property protection should be a means to promote innovation and creativity rather than an end in itself, and that WIPO must evaluate the economic and social benefits of protection rather than just enforcing the law.”
In a lot of (WIPO) treaties, “the U.S. norm becomes the standard,” Thiru Balasubramaniam, Geneva representative of the Washington-based Consumer Project on Technology, is quoted as saying.
There should be greater balance between the interests of poorer countries and the owners of intellectual property, said Julia Oliva of the Washington-based Center for International Environmental Law. “This balance is being skewed.”
If accepted by WIPO’s 181 member states, the proposal could lead to a change in the agency’s constitution, adds AP.
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See:-
mission statement - Medium-term Plan for WIPO programs and activities
blinkered - UN to Relax Protection for Intellectual Property to Help Developing Countries, Associated Press, September 29, 2004
Geneva - Geneva Declaration on the Future of the World Intellectual Property Organization
September 30th, 2004 at 10:35 pm
might want to add this to the list of links - the Geneva Declaration:
http://www.cptech.org/ip/wipo/genevadeclaration.html
this section stood out for me:
“A 1967 Convention sought to encourage creative activity by establishing WIPO to promote the protection of intellectual property. The mission was expanded in 1974, when WIPO became part of the United Nations, under an agreement that asked WIPO to take “appropriate action to promote creative intellectual activity,” and facilitate the transfer of technology to developing countries, “in order to accelerate economic, social and cultural development.”
“As an intergovernmental organization, however, WIPO embraced a culture of creating and expanding monopoly privileges, often without regard to consequences. The 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. WIPO needs to enable its members to understand the real economic and social consequences of excessive intellectual property protections, and the importance of striking a balance between the public domain and competition on the one hand, and the realm of property rights on the other. The mantras that “more is better” or “that less is never good” are disingenuous and dangerous — and have greatly compromised the standing of WIPO, especially among experts in intellectual property policy. WIPO must change.”
I’m in complete agreement with the Declaration.
Thiru Balasubramaniam has it right, the rest of the world is getting a US version ram-jammed down its collective throat.
September 30th, 2004 at 10:55 pm
Good idea.
Cheers!