PHM-Exch> Developing countries express concern over WIPO’s hidden agenda of pushing patent harmonization

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Sweety Prem Kumar R dr.r.sweetypremkumar at gmail.com
Cross-posted from "AIDS Beyond Borders" <
AIDS-Beyond-Borders at googlegroups.com>


Source: Pharmabiz.com; Ramesh Shankar, Mumbai*
*
Even as the World Intellectual Property Organisation's (WIPO) two-day Global
Symposium of IP Authorities is underway in Geneva, the developing countries
are expressing concern on the larger agenda of the organisation, controlled
by US, EU and Japan, on pushing a patent harmonization agenda.

According to WIPO, the symposium is being organised to discuss issues
relating to the modernization and administration of IP Offices (Patent and
Trademark Offices), brainstorm the vision for the future on the global IP
infrastructure including common tools and databases for facilitating
international collaboration, study the value of IP statistics for managing
IP Office operation, and exchange experiences on the different financial
models of IP Offices.

But, there are apprehensions among the developing countries over the larger
intentions of the WIPO. It is evident from an analytical note issued by the
South Centre, an intergovernmental organization of developing countries,
which says, "Discussions in the WIPO Global Symposium of IP Authorities on
17 and 18 September, 2009 will focus on improving the international patent
infrastructure through international collaboration for work-sharing between
patent offices and improvement of the PCT system."

"These discussions may promote the establishment of a globally harmonized
system of patent administration networks. This may fundamentally affect the
way in which substantive decisions about granting patents are taken by
national offices in developing countries. The discussions in the symposium
are particularly significant in view of the proposal by the WIPO Secretariat
before the General Assembly to establish a new Committee on Global IP
Infrastructure with wide discretionary powers to make recommendations
directly to the Director-General without approaching the General Assembly,"
it said.

The document further says that a work-sharing system in which national
offices from developing countries rely on examination reports by a few
offices, largely from developed countries which follow weak examination
standards, can impede the ability of developing countries to apply their
search and examination procedures to prevent the grant of frivolous patents
that may impede local innovation that is necessary for their economic
development.

The patent examination process is an important element in the ability of
developing countries to use their IP law and policy in manner that can
facilitate their economic development, particularly in sectors like
pharmaceuticals, food technology, biotechnology, etc. For instance, the
Indian patent office has rejected many foreign patent applications on
pharmaceutical substances like medicines necessary for treatment of HIV/AIDS
(tenofovir, darunavir), avian influenza (tamiflu), leukaemia (imatinib
mesylate), etc., on the ground that the applications did not satisfy the
requirement of novelty as they were mere incremental modifications of known
substances, the note explained.

Examining the applications under the Indian law was crucial in this regard.
However, in many developed countries such incremental innovations are
patentable. The rejection of such patents in India has enabled Indian
generic companies to produce these medicines and make supply them to many
developing countries at affordable prices, the note said.
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