After a week of controversial informal meetings, the Chair, Maximiliano Santa Cruz, prepared a proposal for future work of the Committee (SCP). The proposal will be analyzed by Member States, International Organizations and Non-governmental organizations today, Friday, the last day of meeting.
It seams a steep forward considering demands from both sides: LDC’s demands on addressing Development Agenda recommendations and further understanding on exceptions and limitations, but also Developing countries interests on client-attorney privilege and patent quality. Nonetheless, the goal was to establish topics to remain on the agenda, which shall be debated further at SCP 16th meeting, to eventually turn out into practical deliberations.
The last day of sessions is still to discuss the Preliminary Studies on: Dissemination of Patent Information, Transfer of Technology and Opposition Systems.
The Chair’s text was presented as follows:
1. Development Agenda coordination mechanism
Following the decision of the 2010 WIPO General Assembly on the coordination mechanisms and monitoring, assessing and reporting modalities of relevant bodies on the implementation of the Development Agenda recommendations, Member States will be given the opportunity to express their views on this issue under a specific item to be included in the agenda of the 16th session of the Committee. These view will be considered in the context of the standardized procedure that WIPO will propose for all relevant WIPO bodies.
2. Non-exhaustive list of issues
The non-exhaustive list of the issue will remain open for further elaboration and discussion at its next session, and three further issues will be included in the list, namely, “Impact of the patent system on developing countries and LDCs”, “Patents and food security” and “Strategic use of IP in business”.
3. Future work
(i) Exceptions and limitations to patent rights: The Secretariat will prepare a draft questionnaire for consideration by Member States at the 16th session of the Committee.
(ii) Quality of patents.
(iii) Patents and public health
(iv) Client-patent advisor privilege: The Secretariat will prepare a preliminary study taking into account the comments made by Member States.
(v) Transfer of technology: The Secretariat will update the existing preliminary study (document SCP/14/4), taking into account the comments made by Member States.
—–
