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Prince Hassan of Jordan Presents PAC Report to WIPO Assemblies

Geneva, September 23, 1999
Press Releases PR/1999/190

His Royal Highness Prince Hassan bin Talal of Jordan presented on Thursday the report of the Policy Advisory Commission (PAC) to the Assemblies of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). In a statement to the Assemblies, Prince Hassan underlined the need to adapt the global intellectual property regime so that it can benefit all peoples.

"The task of the Policy Advisory Commission is to ensure that international policy-makers are aware that intellectual property protection in the context of international free trade systems must have a human face...we have to deal with the concerns of the folks back home, the concerns of people from all walks of life, whether rich or poor, whether simply an individual investor or a huge multilateral enterprise whether an author writing under a pseudonym or a global software company," Prince Hassan said.

Prince Hassan chairs the PAC, a non-constitutional body set up to advise WIPO's Director General, Dr. Kamil Idris, on the Organization's vision and strategic direction. It is composed of eminent personalities from politics, diplomacy, law and public administration. The PAC held its inaugural meeting on April 15, 1999 in Geneva. This was followed by a meeting of a special Task Force of the PAC in Amman on July 20, 1999. The mandate of the PAC is to "enhance the WIPO Secretariat's capacity to monitor and respond in a timely, informed and effective manner to international and regional developments in intellectual property, in information technology, and in other fields bearing on WIPO's operations and its policy environment."

Addressing the Assemblies, Dr. Idris stressed the importance of the PAC's contribution in highlighting critical issues, solutions, opportunities and challenges confronting the international intellectual property community at the turn of the century - a time marked by rapid advances in technology and globalization of trade. He said in the next century, the world intellectual property system, which has an immense capacity to promote and sustain economic, social and cultural growth of nations, will benefit all peoples, noting that intellectual property is "foreign to no culture and native to all nations."

Prince Hassan elaborated on the need to extend the benefits of the intellectual property system to the developing world. "I should like to remind this august body that the efforts ongoing towards free trade in the context of globalization would be a failure without complementing this effort with a well defined technology transfer," which he indicated is a "necessity for global economic growth and a right for the world community." In this respect, he stressed the importance of WIPO's efforts to explore new areas of intellectual property protection, such as cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and folklore. "In this regard, I welcome the efforts of the Organization to explore the various methods by which countries' rights in cultural aspects, such as ethnic botany, folklore, may be protected and preserved."

Reflecting one of the key concerns of the Commission, Prince Hassan emphasized the need to establish intellectual property regimes that balance the rights of owners of intellectual property assets against the rights of the public at large to benefit from these assets. "The global intellectual property regime has to establish a balance between what is right for the intellectual property owner and the rights of other beneficiaries of intellectual property, whether on local or international levels," he said. International and national standards, Prince Hassan said, "should be firmly applied to deter monopolization practices that restrict the freedom of trade and contradict the public purpose of an intellectual property protection regime."

The report of the PAC to the Assemblies outlined the work of the Commission. It highlighted the unlimited and universal nature of intellectual property and "the increasing value of intellectual property, its centrality as a tool for economic growth and wealth creation, and its potential to serve economic and social development". Commission members stressed the need to depoliticize the intellectual property debate and demystify the intellectual property system in order to raise awareness of the potential benefits of the system. The need to engage and integrate all interested parties including the private sector and civil society was also recognized.

The importance of the advisory role and work of the PAC was widely acknowledged by the Assemblies. The PAC was recognized by delegates to the Assemblies meetings as an innovative mechanism. Not only does it broaden the international dialogue on intellectual property but raises consciousness of it at the highest policy level.

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