Intellectual Property And Public Policy Issues

Climate change, food security, access to medical technology and healthcare were on the agenda at WIPO's international Conference on Intellectual Property and Public Policy Issues, held on July 13 and 14 in Geneva. WIPO Director General Francis Gurry noted that the pressing nature of the challenges presented by these issues as well as the evolution of technology, involve IP in public policy as never before. WIPO must engage in these issues in new ways, he added, and use that engagement to inform policy development so that the creative process serves the needs of all countries, developed and developing alike.

The Conference attracted over 400 participants and 30 speakers, including the heads of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Discussion centered on the IP dimensions of climate change, public health, biodiversity and food security. It also highlighted WIPO's role as the multilateral forum where the challenge of using IP to drive innovation, creativity and transfer of technology is balanced with that of ensuring that the IP system produces social and economic benefit for all. Dialogue and collaboration between major stakeholders - international organizations, government, industry and civil society - are necessary to address these questions, and WIPO is the best-positioned and most appropriate venue to host and advance such discussions.

The Conference, held on the recommendation of WIPO's Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP), represented progress toward WIPO's strategic goal of ensuring that the Organization is at the center of global policy debates on IP. ¹

The key: international cooperation

A presentation on climate change issues by keynote speaker, U.K. Minister for Higher Education and Intellectual Property, David Lammy, was among the highlights of the Conference. Mr. Lammy underlined the critical importance of the IP system in delivering a global solution providing for the widespread diffusion and transfer of climate change mitigating technologies, particularly to developing and least developed countries. All countries, rich and poor, he said, are suffering from the consequences of climate change. Mr. Lammy underscored that resolving the technology transfer issue was the key to the successful outcome of climate change...