The two day meeting -organized by the Third World Network (TWN), CPTech and the IFLA- will review the status of the WIPO Development Agenda and proceed with a detailed discussion on the proposed treaty on Access to Knowledge. From 3-4 February, Geneva , Switzerland.

The meeting will be held from February 3-4, 2005 in Geneva, Switzerland at the Maison des Associations, 15 rue des Savoises in the Rachel Carson room. This meeting is organised by the Consumer Project on Technology (CPTech), Third World Network (TWN), and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA).

At the WIPO General Assembly held from 27th September to 5th October 2004 the governments of Argentina and Brazil submitted a proposal for "the Establishment of a Development Agenda for WIPO". The proposal was co-sponsored by Bolivia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Iran, Kenya, Peru, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania and Venezuela. The Development Agenda proposal asked for fundamental changes in WIPO. Some of the proposals were specifically directed at the special concerns of developing countries, while others were efforts to redirect WIPO to give more weight to general consumer and public interests in matters concerning patents, copyrights and other intellectual property rights. Among the proposals for a Development Agenda is a proposal for a "Treaty on Access to Knowledge and Technology".

On October 4, 2004, the WIPO General Assembly issued a decision that creates a rapid evaluation of the Development Agenda. There is now an opportunity to follow up on this. Of particular importance are two Geneva meetings; the April 11-13 2005 inter-sessional intergovernmental meeting that is open to all WIPO Member States and WIPO-accredited IGO and NGO observers, and the April 14-15 2005 meeting of the Permanent Committee on Cooperation for Development Related to Intellectual Property (PCIPD). There will also be a May 2 and 3, 2005 joint international seminar on Intellectual Property and Development, organized with UNCTAD, WHO, UNIDO and WTO, that is open to all stakeholders including NGOs, civil society and academia. The WIPO Secretariat will also prepare a report by July 30, 2005, for consideration at the next WIPO General Assembly in September 2005. The Development Agenda is also being discussed in the context of WIPO's regular meetings on patents and copyrights (Standing Committee on Patents (SCP), Working Group on Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) Reform, Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) etc). The SCCR has also agreed to include the issue of limitations and exceptions to copyright and related rights in its June agenda.

The Development Agenda proposal, the WIPO General Assembly decision and many of the comments and discussions are on the web at www.cptech.org/ip/wipo/futureofwipo.html

In order to prepare for these meetings, and to discuss the proposed treaty on Access to Knowledge TWN, CPTech and IFLA are hosting this Experts Meeting. The invited participants will include Geneva based delegates involved in TRIPS and WIPO negotiations from developing countries; key academics, civil society NGOs from developed and developing countries; representing diverse interests and areas of expertise.

The two day meeting will begin with a short review of the status of the WIPO Development Agenda and proceed with a detailed discussion on the proposed treaty on Access to Knowledge. On the first day the discussion will begin with the Development Agenda proposal for an instrument on sharing access to government funded research. This will be followed by discussions on proposals for minimum global limitations and exceptions in the area of copyright. The second day will focus on emerging issues for access to knowledge including the control of anti-competitive practices, the open access publishing movement, promotion of open source/free software, and proposals to address problems of patents on (Internet and other) standards, and on public goods like the HapMap or Human Genome databases. The meeting will close with discussion on strategy and the appropriate fora for the promotion of an Access to Knowledge (a2k) campaign.

We will also create a public archived discussion list for the meeting called a2k-discuss at http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/a2k

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PROGRAMME

Experts meeting on the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Development Agenda and Treaty Access to Knowledge