On Friday, 26 November 2010, the 6th session of the WIPO Committee on Development Agenda and Intellectual Property approved a project entitled “Project on Open Collaborative Projects and IP-Based Models”. As mentioned in KEI’s previous posting on this subject, this project endeavors to implement Recommendation 36 of the Development Agenda which states:
Recommendation 36 (Cluster D): To exchange experiences on open collaborative projects such as the Human Genome Project as well as on intellectual property models
At CDIP 6, Bolivia requested the WIPO secretariat to examine the prize proposals submitted by the governments of Bangladesh, Barbados, Bolivia and Suriname to the WHO Expert Working Group on R&D Financing. The Committee accepted this proposal with Bolivia’s amendments.
This 30 month long project with a budget line of 895,000 Swiss francs includes the following language instructing WIPO to organize an experts meeting to “exchange best practices on open collaborative projects such as the Human Genome Project…. the Prize Proposals submitted by the Governments of Bangladesh, Barbados, Bolivia and Suriname (BBBS proposals) to the WHO Expert Working Group on R&D Financing”… thus undergirding the expected work of the inchoate WHO consultative expert working group on R&D in its consideration of the BBBS proposals.