At 10:52 AM today, the United States of America (on behalf of Group B, the “rich country” group of WIPO) nominated Maximiliano Santa Cruz of Chile to be chair of the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP). Singapore, on behalf of the Asian Group, seconded the nomination of Mr Santa Cruz and proposed candidates from China and Romania as Vice-Chairs. Brazil registered its support for this complement of candidates.
Brazil made some general comments on the WIPO Report on the International Patent System. The delegate from Brazil suggested that the committee not prejudice future work by limiting discussion to just four items put forth during the ill-fated Substantive Patent Law Treaty (SPLT) negotiations. namely prior art, grace period, novelty and inventive step (obviousness). He noted that WIPO’s informative matrix detailing selected provisions from around 100 countries on these four aforementioned items in addition to matrices on “sufficiency of disclosure, exclusions from patentable subject matter and exceptions and limitations of the rights” could give the impression that the SCP was intent on harmonization of these seven topics. The Brazilian representative requested that the International Bureau produce a comparative matrix on countries’ provisions on remedying anti-competitive practicies, transfer of technology and standards in information and communications technology (ICT).