Every year at the end of September, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) holds a General Assembly (GA). The GA hears reports from all WIPO committees, approves budgets and top staff appointments, and sets the agenda for the next year. This year’s GA started today, with a large number of patent and copyright office heads, trade negotiators and NGOs in attendance.
So far, the meeting is often to a fairly quiet start. The early high level statements by ministers are a mixture of old school praises for the IP system, and comments about new social issues such as public health or climate change. But there are things going on.
The European Union, working closely with Japan and some African countries, is said to be lobbying for changes in the GA mandate to the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) on the topic of the broadcast treaty. We have not seen the EU proposal yet, and the U.S. delegation claims it has not see it either. Reportedly the EU wants to lower the threshold for scheduling a diplomatic conference. At present, that threshold is to first have an agreement on the objectives, specific scope and object of protection on draft broadcasting treaty. Delegates here say they have heard the U.S. has indicated it “might not object much” to the EU proposal, but it is also possible the U.S. will read a clear statement in opposition. We will have to see what actually happens.
The EU proposal is fairly secret right now. While European and Japan negotiators have clearly been lobbying on the proposal, when approached, a number of EU delegates say they are not aware such a proposal exists.
On Friday or Monday, WIPO is expected to begin substantive issues, including reports from the SCCR and SCP.
I live and work in the Washington, DC area, but the WIPO GA a good place to find out what is happening back home. Here people are saying that the White House chief of staff Ramuel Emanuel has not yet decided on the location of the new IP czar position, and people seemed to think the actual contours of the job itself were not set. The U.S. Chamber and some other U.S. business groups were keen to have the office in a place like OMB or another powerful WH setting, and to allow the czar to consider policy issues much beyond IP enforcement. But while these issues have yet to be sorted out, many said that the job will go to Victoria Espinel, who was an IP negotiator at USTR for the Bush Administration. Some here say that Sharon Barner will likely be the Deputy head of the USPTO. Barner is a Chicago IP litigator who is a personal friend of Obama. Arti Rai is expected to take an appointed job that will include, among other things, the international policy work now head up by Lois Boland. Kappos, Barner and Rai are all highly regarded professionals, and each will bring different perspectives to the USPTO.
People from the US delegation have been careful in discussing the proposal for a treaty for sharing accessible formats for reading disabled persons. One USPTO official who earlier had reportedly told Geneva delegates the US would block a treaty or even a model law, denied that this is the U.S. position.
Some developing country negotiators object to the notion that a treaty for reading disabilities is a “deliverable” on the WIPO development agenda, noting the treaty will have few benefits to those developing countries that have a unique language, and/or low levels of access to Internet or computer technologies. On the other hand, there is strong support for the treaty as a human rights issue.
On Tuesday, George Kershner from the DAISY consortium attended the WIPO GA, and as he was leaving, he was asked to attend the private WIPO/USPTO/LOC Nov 30-Dec 4 meeting on reading disabilities.
Albert Tramposch, who for the past couple of years was the chief EU negotiator at the WHO on IP and health in the IGWG negotiations, is attending the meeting, as the new Deputy Executive Director for International and Regulatory issues, for AIPLA. Earlier Tramposch was associated with the Romulus Group, a “global issues management” firm, and the NFTC’s Global Innovation Forum, and was once rumored to be a candidate for the WIPO Global Issues job.
The WIPO Global Issues job has gone to Dr. Johannes Christian Wichard, currently the Deputy Director General for Commercial and Economic Law of the German Federal Ministry of Justice. Carsten Fink, the new WIPO chief economist, will report to Wichard.