Sisule F. Musungu – Dr. Francis Gurry’s Report to the Members States of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) at the opening of the 2009 General Assemblies can be summed up as a call to rethinking and reshaping culture, systems, governance, norms and strategy. How WIPO’s culture evolves, how the global intellectual property (IP) system is governed and reshaped for the 21st Century, the balance in the norms that are generated by the organization and the strategy for engagement and dialogue will determine the contribution of WIPO to addressing today’s pressing global challenges; from development through to tackling climate change. In this post, I offer some reflections on where WIPO is one year into the new administration and on the DG’s thoughts on the challenges going forward.
Archive for the ‘IP and Development’ Category
WIPO General Assemblies 2009: Reflections on the Report of the Director General
Sunday, September 27th, 2009Keeping Up With the IP Debate
Saturday, July 25th, 2009Gene Quinn (author of IPWatchdog.com) has released a list of the top 50 Patent Blogs. Although this is a non-scientific survey, it is worth looking at the list and making sure that you are visiting regularly the blogs that are important for you. Not all the blogs relate to the area of work that IQsensato focuses on, but it’s worth a look to check you are in the loop.
Book Launch: Implementing the WIPO’s Development Agenda
Friday, July 10th, 2009Today, 10 July 2009, another Geneva Seminar on Development Research (GSDR), IQsensato’s flagship seminar series takes place in Geneva. The seminar will launch and discuss the twelve-chapter book “Implementing the WIPO’s Development Agenda“, edited by Jeremy de Beer with a Foreword by Daniel Gervais and an Afterword by Christopher May, from Lancaster University.
Second Geneva Seminar on Development Research (GSDR)
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009Today, IQsensato hosts the Second Geneva Seminar on Development Research (GSDR) with a focus on ” Copyright and Access to Educational and Learning Materials in Africa: Evidence from an Eight Country Study Project”. The seminar is co-organised with the African Copyright and Access to Knowledge (ACA2K) Project which has also released a Briefing Paper for the seminar.
The WIPO Development Agenda and the MDGs
Friday, April 24th, 2009The WIPO Development Agenda (WDA) recommends (Recommendation 22) that “WIPO norm-setting activities should be supportive of the development goals agreed within the UN system, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration” otherwise known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The Recommendation goes on to ask the WIPO Secretariat, without prejudice to the outcome of Member States considerations, and subject to specific Member States’ instructions and the appropriateness of each case to, among other things, address a range of issues, such as flexibilities, exceptions and limitations, in the norm-setting working documents prepared by it. This recommendation links to Recommendation 12 which requires WIPO to further mainstream development considerations into its substantive and technical assistance activities and debates.
