Program - Thursday, November 5, 2009
Morning
Opening Session
Welcome and Introduction
Francis Gurry, WIPO Director General
- Keynote: The MDGs
What are the needs of developing countries, in particular LDCs and countries in Africa? - Keynote: Innovation and Development
Why is innovation important for development and how can the IP system support the creation, sharing and management of knowledge for development impacts? - Keynote: Development, Public Policies and IP
IP is a cross-cutting policy issue which has an impact on a number of policy areas related to development (e.g. health, education, agriculture, trade etc). How can WIPO, in partnership with development agencies, support developing countries in dealing with IP and ensuring policy coherence that balances the variety of development needs?
Thematic Session 1: Aid for Trade
Keynote Introduction
The Aid-for-Trade initiative intends to raise awareness about the support developing countries, in particular least developed countries, need in order to strengthen their ability to benefit from the globalization of trade with a view to reducing poverty. Increasingly donors are looking at how they might support developing and least developed countries build trade capacity. Intellectual property is a critical, but too frequently overlooked element of trade capacity building. Whether it relates to trademarks, designs, geographical indications, copyright or patents, IP is indispensible for economic operators in developed, developing and least developed countries to achieve competitiveness and sustainable business growth. The Conference will seek to raise the profile of IP on the Aid-for-Trade agenda and to ensure that donors recognize that IP has a catalytic role to play, which they cannot afford to ignore.
Presentations
Examples on the use of GIs and Trademarks
Ethiopian Coffee
Presentation on the Ethiopian Fine Coffee Designations, Trademarking and & Licensing Initiative. This presentation will highlight the experience Ethiopia gained in developing and implementing appropriate IP-related strategies and mechanisms for the protection and exploitation of the intangible values embodied in its fine coffees, thereby increasing the benefit of coffee farmers, traders and distributors as well as catering to the interests of the coffee buyers and consumers.
Agriculture, development and plant variety protection
The introduction of foreign-bred varieties in Kenya was facilitated by the introduction of a system of plant variety protection for breeders. The availability of those varieties has been a key factor in the increased competitiveness of the Kenyan flower industry in the European market. The floriculture industry now employs a large labor force, which is an important source of income for the small-scale farmers located in the rural areas. It is estimated that the horticultural industry employs 2 million people directly in breeding, production, packaging and transport. Another 3.5 million people are supported indirectly by the industry; for instance, in marketing, hospitality industry, manufacturing of containers etc. There are over 160 professional-size growers, including small‑scale (under 4 ha), medium‑scale (10 to 50 ha) and large‑scale growers (over 50ha). In the early stages of development, a few large‑scale growers dominated the industry. However, there are now more than 100 medium to large‑scale growers. In 2003, Kenya exported over 61,000 metric tons of cut flowers to Europe; the value of that export was US$ 216 million. On overall horticultural production in 2008, 7 million tons were produced and used domestically, while 403,000 tons were exported, accounting for about 4% of total production. These were worth US$ 1.8 billion for the domestic market and US$1.0 billion in export.
Design Africa
Presentation by an African SME and the “Design Africa” team on the “Design Africa” program which was launched in 2006 by
WIPO/WTO Cooperation: LDC IP Needs Assessment
WIPO/WTO presentation on LDC IP needs assessment in relation to the WTO. Following Uganda and Sierra Leone’s submissions to the WTO and donors of their official proposals and requests relating to an IP needs assessment, the presentation will look at the role WIPO should play in supporting this work.
Capacity Building for Developing Country IP Offices
Presentation on International Cooperation for the Search and Examination of Inventions (ICSEI) and on its efforts to respond to requests for training patent examiners in developing countries
Lunchtime presentation on:
IP Outreach Campaigns - The Development Impact of IP: Economic Studies
Afternoon
Round Table: Intellectual Property and Aid for Trade
This Roundtable Session will address the importance of regulatory frameworks which create an enabling environment that can support aid for trade - with specific reference to IP policy. Each of the panelists will provide a short presentation on related issues and then respond to questions from the floor. The objective of the session will be to raise awareness about the support developing countries, in particular least developed countries, need to overcome the barriers that constrain their ability to benefit from the globalization of trade and, consequently, help reduce poverty.
Thematic Session 2: Science, Technology and Innovation for development
Keynote Introduction
History shows that humankind has frequently turned to technological solutions for dealing with the threats and challenges confronting society. Policies and structures designed to stimulate technological innovation and, equally importantly, to facilitate the transfer of technology to those who need it, are therefore directly relevant to the consideration of the ways in which the global community can respond to such problems. A well-designed and effective IP system offers a strategic tool for Member States seeking to support national innovation and technology transfer processes.
Conscious of the role that sound innovation support infrastructures, professional IP management expertise and technology licensing skills can play in order to stimulate the creation and diffusion of new technologies, a number of Member States have already moved towards the development and adoption of national strategies which anchor IP asset management and exploitation considerations within national policy-making processes related to innovation, science and technology, trade and export promotion, human resource development and education.
In this regard, much work is still required to strengthen the understanding of the cross-cutting links between IP policy and the broader national development plans which cover a wide range of public policy issues. The Conference will seek to explore the different ways that IP is supportive of other public policy areas (such as health, agriculture, climate change etc.) and why it is important for donors to reflect this in their work.
It is in the area of IP policy that WIPO’s work obtains even more relevance. Besides finding new and more efficient ways of managing IP assets, WIPO and its Member States must primarily look at the fundamental values and standards of IP protection so as to understand their adequacy to the goals of promoting the creation and the circulation of science, technology and innovation. This requires re-assessing the global environment and using the global IP framework as an important tool for supporting businesses, ideas, job and wealth creation in all parts of the world. The Conference will ask some crucial questions in this direction, as a promise of a renewed dialogue on the multilateral IP framework.
Supporting Universities and Research Organizations
Presentation on work to support research institutions in the Arab region to commercialize scientific research with a specific example of a technology developed and in the process of commercialization
Technology Transfer: Agriculture, Development and Plant Variety Protection
Agriculture needs to provide sustainable food security and economic development in the context of current and future global challenges. New plant varieties play a critical role in providing a dynamic and sustainable agriculture that can meet those challenges; plant variety protection is a key factor in encouraging plant breeding and in transferring that technology to farmers. Since the introduction of a system of plant variety protection in the Republic of Korea, many university researchers have become involved in breeding commercial varieties and, in some crops (rice and lily examples), farmers have also become engaged in breeding (farmer‑breeders). The “breeder’s exemption” in the UPOV Convention means that breeders can freely use protected varieties in their breeding programs, and Korean breeders have used foreign-bred protected varieties to develop new varieties of interest for the domestic and global market (rose example).
Technology Transfer: R&D Networks and IP Hubs
WIPO and several partner institutions have designed an interdisciplinary project to support developing country scientists in protecting and commercializing their intellectual achievements. The project is based on Research & Development (R&D) Networks and Intellectual Property (IP) Hubs as a model which may foster scientific collaboration, improve results, optimize resource allocation by using economies of scale and reduce the costs of research and IP commercialization in the Network Member Institutions. The project was implemented in the Health Sector of two selected developing country sites – Colombia and a sub region of Central Africa. This presentation will be based on the positive results Colombia reproduced the same model of R&D Networks in Energy, Agro – Industry and the Defence Sector.
Recently, experts involved in the development of Agricultural Innovation in Dray land Africa (AIDA) - EU funded partnership Project - expressed interest to collaborate with WIPO in the creation of similar Networks in Agriculture Sector in Africa.Public Health and Patent Information in Africa
Presentation on facilitating widespread access to, and promoting further development of, user friendly databases which contain public information on the administrative status of health related patent applications would improve public procurement of medicines in African countries, stimulate competition in the pharmaceutical markets, improve effectiveness of efforts to contain costs and increase access to medicines for the poor in countries in Africa. The public status of heath related patent applications in African countries is a problem for public procurement of medicines in these countries. WIPO’s work to support access to and use of patent information provides a practical means to address this problem.
Technology and Innovation Support Centres
Access to state of the art information is an important part of the innovation process. Innovators tend to build upon the research work of others and need to use their often limited resources in the most effective way possible. In the patenting process that may follow, access to previously published patents and patent applications helps to establish the novelty of a new invention, avoid infringement of others’ inventions, and improve the patent drafting process to improve the quality of a patent application.
Technology and Innovation Support Centres (TISCs) are intended to provide the local research and business community with expert assistance in finding technological information. They should provide resources such as online access to patent databases and to scientific and technical journals, as well as assistance in searching these vast and complex collections of tens of millions of documents. Assisting offices in developing countries and LDCs to establish TISCs is a new WIPO program starting in 2009 building upon the successful experience of similar centers in developed countries.