As Geneva awakes from its summer slumber post-Jeûne genevois (6 September 2012), the following conferences and negotiations are expected to shape the knowledge governance landscape in the second semester of 2012 at WHO, WIPO and WTO.
World Health Organization
Here are upcoming meetings of the WHO in 2012 of relevance to public heath, innovation and access.
Regional meetings (Source: WHO, governing bodies website)
- 4-7 September: Yogyakarta 2012, Indonesia Regional Committee for South-East Asia: sixty-fifth session
- 10-13 September 2012: Valleta, Malta Regional Committee for Europe: sixty-second session
- 17-21 September 2012: Washington D.C., USA Regional Committee for the Americas: sixty-fourth session
- 24-28 September 2012: Hanoi, Viet Nam Regional Committee for the Western Pacific: sixty-third session
- 1-4 October 2012: Cairo, Egypt Regional Committee for the Eastern Mediterranean: fifty-ninth session
- 22-26 October 2012: Luanda, Angola Regional Committee for Africa: sixty-second session
According to informed sources, the open-ended meeting of Member States that will thoroughly analyze the CEWG report and the feasibility of the recommendations proposed by the CEWG will be scheduled from 26 November 2012 to 28 November 2012 in Geneva, Switzerland. This meeting takes place at the time as the 19th session of the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP). The WIPO patent committee (SCP19) will consider the following topics: 1) exceptions and limitations to patent rights, 2) quality of patents, including opposition systems, 3) patents and health, 4) confidentiality of communications between clients and their patent advisors and 5) transfer of technology.
On 19 November 2012, the first meeting of a new WHO member state mechanism for” international collaboration among Member States, from a public health perspective, excluding trade and intellectual property considerations, regarding “substandard/spurious/falsely-labelled/falsified/counterfeit medical products” will convene in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
For more background on the mandate for the convening of national, regional and global consultations on the recommendations of the CEWG, please see the following background information below.
On 26 May 2012, the 65th the World Health Assembly passed resolution WHA65.22, entitled, “Follow up of the report of the Consultative Expert Working Group on Research and Development: Financing and Coordination”.
Its operative language included the following instructions:
2. URGES Member States:
(1) to hold national level consultations among all relevant stakeholders, in order to discuss the CEWG report and other relevant analyses, resulting in concrete proposals and actions;
(2) to participate actively in the meetings at regional and global level referred to in this resolution;
(3) to implement, where feasible, in their respective countries, proposals and actions identified by national consultations;
(4) to establish and/or strengthen mechanisms for improved coordination of research and development (R&D) in collaboration with WHO and other relevant partners, as appropriate;3. CALLS UPON Member States, the private sector, academic institutions and nongovernmental organizations to increase investments in health research and development related to Type II and Type III diseases and the specific research and development needs of developing countries in relation to Type I diseases;
4. REQUESTS regional committees to discuss at their 2012 meetings the report of the CEWG in the context of the implementation of the global strategy and plan of action on public health, innovation and intellectual property in order to contribute to concrete proposals and actions;
5. REQUESTS the Director-General to hold an open-ended meeting of Member States that will thoroughly analyse the report and the feasibility of the recommendations proposed by the CEWG, taking into account, as appropriate, related studies as well as the results from national consultations and regional committee discussions, and will develop proposals or options relating to (1) research coordination, (2) financing and (3) monitoring of R&D expenditures,3 to be presented under a substantive item dedicated to the follow up of the CEWG report at the Sixty-sixth World Health Assembly, through the Executive Board at its 132nd session.
World Intellectual Property OrganizationThe fall/winter calender for WIPO negotiations on copyright and related rights will usher in a busy period. Please see the relevant portions of the conclusions of the 24th session of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) reproduced below:
The Committee noted: [a] that substantial progress had been made on the substantive provisions of a draft legal instrument on appropriate exceptions and limitations for persons with visual impairment and/or print disabilities, [b] that further work on substantive provisions
still remains to be done, and [c] that the SCCR is committed to resolution of outstanding questions at its next session. In this connection, the Committee agreed on the following recommendations to the WIPO General Assembly:a) that an inter-sessional meeting of the SCCR be held in Geneva between the 2012 General Assembly and the 25th session of the SCCR, and that funding be provided, according to the usual formula, for experts from developing countries to participate in the meeting. The exact dates will be determined by the WIPO Secretariat.
b) that the item of limitations and exceptions for visually impaired persons/persons with print disabilities will continue in the 25th session of the SCCR with a view to conclude or advance substantially the text-based work on limitations and exceptions for visually impaired persons/persons with print disabilities.
c) that the General Assembly convene an extraordinary session to be held in December 2012 to evaluate the text from SCCR/25 and to make a decision on whether to convene a diplomatic conference in 2013.
In relation to work on the Treaty for the Blind, WIPO has provisionally set the dates for an inter-sessional meeting of the SCCR to accelerate text-based work for a “legal instrument on appropriate exceptions and limitations”. This inter-sessional will most likely take place in Geneva between 17 October 2012 to 19 October 2012. Following this, the 25th session of the SCCR will take place from 19 November 2012 to 23 November 2012. The extraordinary session of the WIPO General Assembly is slated for either 17-18 December 2012 or 19-20 December 2012. It should be noted that the 8th session of the WIPO Advisory Committee on Enforcement takes place on 17-18 December 2012.
These three meetings: 1) the inter-sessional, 2) SCCR25 and 3) the extraordinary GA will be key in determining the substance and the nature (ie Treaty or General Recommendation) of an international legal instrument to address the needs of the blind, visually impaired and persons with reading disabilities in accessing protected works. In particular, this extraordinary GA will make the decision on whether to convene a diplomatic conference in 2013.
Key dates (Source: WIPO calendar)
- 10 September 2012 to 14 September 2012, Program and Budget Committee: Nineteenth Session
- 17 September 2012, Information Meeting on the Role and Responsibility of Internet Intermediaries in the Field of Trademarks
- 18 September 2012 to 21 September 2012, Standing Committee on the Law of Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Geographical Indications : Twenty-Seventh Session
- 28 September 2012, First Annual Conference on South South Cooperation
- 1 October 2012 to 9 October, Assemblies of Member States of WIPO: Fiftieth Series of Meetings
- 17 October 2012 to 19 October 2012, Inter-sessional Meeting on Limitations and Exceptions for Visually Impaired Persons/Persons with Print Disabilities (subject to approval by the WIPO General Assembly in early October 2012)
- 12 November 2012 to 16 November 2012, Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP) : Tenth Session
- 19 November 2012 to 23 November 2012, Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights : Twenty-Fifth Session
- 26 November 2012 to 30 November 2012, Standing Committee on the Law of Patents : Nineteenth Session
- 17-18 December 2012, Extraordinary session of the WIPO General Assembly
- 19-20 December 2012, Advisory Committee on Enforcement : Eighth Session
World Trade Organization
Key dates (Source: WTO Programme of Meetings for 2012)
- 19 September 2012 to 21 September 2012, Trade Policy Review Body – Korea
- 24 September 2012 to 26 September 2012, WTO Public Forum
- 28 September 2012, Dispute Settlement Body
- 3 – 4 October 2012, General Council
- 9 + 11 October, Trade Policy Review Body – Norway
- 15 + 17 October 2012, Trade Policy Review Body – Bangladesh
- 23 October 2012, Dispute Settlement Body
- 30 October 2012 + 1 November 2012, Trade Policy Review Body – Israel
- 6 – 7 November 2012, Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights
- 13 + 15 November 2012, Trade Policy Review Body – Iceland
- 19 November 2012, Dispute Settlement Body
- 21 + 23 November 2012, Trade Policy Review Body – East African Community (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda)
- 27 – 29 November 2012, Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade
- 4 + 6 December 2012, Trade Policy Review Body – Nicaragua
- 11 – 12 December 2012, General Council
- 17 December 2012, Dispute Settlement Body
- 18 + 20 December 2012, Trade Policy Review Body – United States of America