WIPO Secretariat surges ahead on hosting round table on “Economics of IP”

Without much fanfare save a press release bereft of critical detail, the WIPO Secretariat hosted an international round table on from 26-27 November 2007 which brought together 15 leading economists to discuss the “economics of intellectual property (IP)”.

According to the press release,

Mr. Sherif Saadallah, Executive Director of WIPO’s Office of Strategic Use of Intellectual Property for Development, said that the roundtable provided an opportunity to review the empirical evidence, identify gaps in the literature and discuss methodological approaches that could be applied to study the economics of IP in developing countries and countries with economies in transition….”

In light of the recent adoption by member states of a WIPO Development Agenda, Mr. Saadallah said he expected an increase in requests for WIPO to study issues relating to IP and economic development. He added that “the Development Agenda is a landmark agreement in the history of the Organization which reflects the desire of member states to ensure that the IP system is not perceived as an end in itself but as an instrument to promote technological innovation and creativity, as well as the transfer and dissemination of knowledge….”

The economists reviewed relevant empirical evidence, identified gaps in the literature and discussed methodological approaches that could be applied to study the issues in developing countries and countries in transition. The basis for discussions were six draft papers on the following themes: Innovation and Appropriability Strategies; IP and International Technology Transfer; IP Rights in the Pharmaceutical Industry; The Economics of Copyright; The Economics of Geographical Indications; and IP Rights and Knowledge Transfer from Public Research Organizations and Universities to Industry.

From the press release, one could infer that this round table was organized at the behest of Member States, particularly when considering proposal 35 of the Development Agenda which calls upon WIPO to undertake “new studies to assess the economic, social and cultural impact of the use of intellectual property systems in these States.”

Yet when your blogger inquired among the Geneva community of country delegates, media and public policy think tanks for details of this event, everyone seemed to be in the dark. It is unclear as to whether even Member States were invited to this consultation. However, as this Secretariat convened round table of 15 economists has already chosen the six themes for consideration, one wonders what oversight, if any, that Member States and the Development Agenda community have on this process. Perhaps the most glaring lacunae in the press release was the absence of a program or any mention of the economists who participated in the round table.

Finally, a week later, the detailed programme has emerged (but sadly not on the WIPO website but from a source outside WIPO). It is reproduced below.

WIPO/IP/ECON/GE/07/INF/1 ORIGINAL: English
DATE: November 16, 2007
WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ORGANIZATION
GENEVA

WIPO INTERNATIONAL ROUNDTABLE ON THE

ECONOMICS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
organized by
the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)

Geneva, November 26 and 27, 2007
PROVISIONAL PROGRAM
prepared by the International Bureau of WIPO

November 26, 2007

9.00 – 9.15 Opening Remarks Mr. Sherif Saadallah, Executive Director, Office of Strategic Use of Intellectual Property for Development (OSUIPD), WIPO

Theme 1: Intellectual Property and International Technology Transfer

9.15 – 9.45 Speaker: Dr. Ashish Arora, Professor of Economics and Public Policy, H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, United States of America

9.45 – 10.15 Comments by: Dr. Beata Javorcik, Reader in Economics, Oxford University, United Kingdom

Dr. Albert Guangzhou Hu, Associate Professor, Department of Economics, National University of Singapore, Singapore

10.15 – 11.00 Discussion by All Participants

11.00 – 11.15 Coffee break

Theme 2: Innovation and Appropriability Strategies

11.15 – 11.45 Speaker: Dr. Andrés López, Principal Researcher, CENIT, and Professor, Department of Economics, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires

11.45 – 12.15 Comments: Dr. Dominique Foray, Director, Chair of Economics and Management of Innovation, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland

Dr. Kevin Urama, Director, African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS), Nairobi, Kenya

12.15 – 13.00 Discussion by All Participants

13.00 – 14.30 Lunch break

Theme 3: Intellectual Property Rights in the Pharmaceutical Industry

14.30 – 15.00 Speaker: Dr. Iain Cockburn, Professor of Finance and Economics, Boston University, Boston, United States of America

15.00 – 15.30 Comments: Dr. Rokiah Alavi, International Islamic University of Malaysia

Dr. Carsten Fink, Visiting Senior Fellow, Group d’Economie Mondiale, Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris, France

15.30 – 16.15 Discussion by All Participants

16.15 – 16.30 Coffee break

Theme 4: The Economics of Copyright

16.30 – 17.00 Speaker: Dr. Richard Watt, Senior Lecturer, Department of Economics, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

17.00 – 17.30 Comments: Dr. Ruth Towse, Professor of Economics of Creative Industries, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, the Netherlands

Dr. Roger Melki, Professor, St Joseph University, Beirut, Lebanon

Dr. José Luis Zofio, Professor, Department of Economic Analysis, Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain

17.30 – 18.15 Discussion by All Participants

November 27, 2007

Theme 5: The Economics of Geographical Indications

9.00 – 9.30 Speaker: Dr. Johann Kirsten, Head, Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria

9.30 – 10.00 Comments: Dr. John Wilkinson, Senior Lecturer, Graduate Center : Development, Agriculture and Society (CPDA), Rural Federal University Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Dr. Roland Herrmann, Professor, Agricultural Policy and Market Research, University of Giessen, Germany

10.00 – 10.45 Discussion by All Participants

10.45 – 11.00 Coffee break

Theme 6: IP Rights and Knowledge Transfer from Public Research Organizations and Universities to Industry

11.00 – 11.30 Speaker: Dr. Fabio Montobbio, Researcher, Centre for Research on Innovation and Internationalization (CESPRI), University of Boconi, Milan, Italy

11.30 – 12.00 Comments: Dr. Dominique Foray

Dr. Albert Guangzhou Hu

12.00 – 12.30 Discussion by All Participants

12.30 – 13.30 Follow up and closing remarks: Mr. Pushpendra Rai, Acting Director, Intellectual Property and Economic Development Division, WIPO

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