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During 11-15 June 2007, the Provisional Committee on Proposals for a WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) Development Agenda (PCDA) had meetings during which WIPO members negotiated agreements on several proposals for new activities of the UN organization.

"This is a major achievement. It's a complete overhaul of the WIPO concept, broadening it to reflect society's growing concern with ownership of technologies and knowledge, and its effects for the future, both in developed and developing countries" was the statement of a participant in the meetings.

Six clusters of proposals, labelled A to F, were under discussion during the meeting on issues such as open collaborative projects, intellectual property protection, and development impact assessments. An agreement was reached on 21 proposals that came now besides the 24 agreed upon during the meeting on 23 February. All of the 45 proposals agreed this year will be adopted by the General Assembly and implemented in September.

The initial idea of reforming WIPO came in 2004 from Argentina and Brazil and the 45 proposals have resulted from the 111 proposals made by various countries during a two-year period.

Proposals agreed during this last meeting covered domains such as technical assistance, rule making, technology transfer, development impact assessments, WIPO's mandate, touching topics such as protection to competition, access to knowledge and open collaborative models to support public domain.

A new WIPO Committee on Development and IP was recommended for setting up to replace PCDA and the Permanent Committee on Cooperation for Development Related to Intellectual Property (PCIPD). The proposed committee would hold its first meeting in the first half of 2008.

The new committee's tasks will be to elaborate a work programme for the implementation of the proposed recommendations, to "monitor, assess, discuss and report on the implementation of all recommendations adopted, discuss IP and development related issues as agreed by the Committee, as well as those decided by the General Assembly."

The director general of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Dr.Kamil Idris has considered the discussions as "a milestone in the history of the Organization". "This process and the spirit of compromise and mutual understanding in which it took place, is an important contribution to international efforts to promote the development of a balanced intellectual property system that is responsive to the needs and interests of all countries - developed and developing alike" he added.

James Love, director of the NGO- Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) explained the importance of the result: "After three years, WIPO has produced a meaningful and welcome new vision for WIPO. The governments who participated in the negotiations agreed that WIPO is no longer only to pursue mindless expansions of intellectual property rights, but now is a place to discuss a broad range of topics, including measures to protect or promote access to knowledge, the implications and benefits of a rich and accessible public domain, and strategies for dealing with abuses of rights, or other measures to protect the public interest."

He also emphasised the need to continue the common efforts for the implementation of the Development Agenda: "Having concluded a difficult and quite meaty negotiation over WIPO's purpose and direction, there will be an effort to implement the new Development Agenda. The next two to three years will be critical. One has to prudently wonder how sustainable is the interest in this reform effort. The institutional juggernaut behind stronger IPR is well financed and permanent, and the opposition is often poorly resourced and episodic."

In A 'Major Achievement', WIPO Negotiators Create New Development Mandate (18.06.2007)
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=656

WIPO Committee Reaches Breakthrough Agreements On Development Agenda (15.06.2007)
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=655

Final PCDA Recommendations to 2007 General Assembly (15.06.2007)
http://www.keionline.org/index.php?option=com_jd-wp&Itemid=39&...

KEI Statement on conclusion of WIPO Development Agenda negotiations (15.06.2007)
http://www.keionline.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&am...

WIPO Director General Welcomes Major Breakthrough following Agreement on Proposals for a WIPO Development Agenda (18.06.2007)
http://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/articles/2007/article_0037.html

Blogging WIPO: The New Development Agenda (18.06.2007)
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/005320.php