VZCZCXYZ0012
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHGV #0730/01 2461558
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 031558Z SEP 09
FM USMISSION GENEVA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9182
INFO RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC
RUEHSUN/USUN ROME IT

UNCLAS GENEVA 000730 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
SECSTATE FOR IO, EEB, OES 
COMMERCE FOR USPTO 
ROME for FODAG 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON KIPR SENV WIPO
SUBJECT:  WIPO Conference on Public Policy 
 
¶1. SUMMARY (SBU):  During the July 13-14 World Intellectual Property 
Organization (WIPO) Conference on Intellectual Property (IP) and 
Public Policy Issues in Geneva, Switzerland, participants explored 
and clarified the connection between IP and several major public 
policy issues such as climate change, public health, food security 
and protection of traditional knowledge.  The conference was held at 
the behest of the WIPO Standing Committee on Patents (SCP) and 
provided an opportunity for WIPO not only to reinsert itself into 
debates on IP's role in addressing key public policy issues, but 
also to claim a leadership role that WIPO hopes will result in 
better understanding of the IP aspect of public policy issues by 
intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations and 
member states.  A Chair's report on the public policy conference 
will be submitted to the next SCP meeting in November 2009, at which 
time, developing countries may push to have the conference's topics 
become a new focal point for work under the SCP.  To address 
concerns from some WIPO Member States that the focus of the public 
policy conference not be diverted from the patent system, WIPO held 
a separate conference on access to reading material for the visually 
impaired on the morning of July 13 (septel). END SUMMARY. 
 
Climate Change 
-------------- 
 
¶2. (U) The role of IP in promoting the development and diffusion of 
green technologies to combat climate change was at the heart of 
discussions at a two-day international conference on IP and public 
policy issues.  The overall view at the Conference was that IP is a 
key incentive for the creation of new green technologies to address 
climate change problems.  To assess the extent of the climate change 
problem, Michel Jarraud, Secretary General the World Meteorological 
Organization (WMO) pointed to unequivocal scientific evidence on the 
tremendous impacts of climate change on health and food security. 
He noted that IP should be a catalyst, and not an obstacle, to 
solving problems associated with climate change.  Jarraud emphasized 
the advantages of international cooperation and the need for a 
multi-disciplinary approach to the challenges arising from climate 
change, as well as the importance of facilitating technology 
transfer. 
 
¶3. (U) Britain's Minister for Higher Education and Intellectual 
Property, Mr. David Lammy, and WIPO DG Gurry also provided similar 
messages emphasizing the importance of IP rights in facilitating the 
transition to clean technologies and renewable energies, and the 
range of options offered by the IP system in identifying, 
transferring, and disseminating those technologies to address 
climate change.  Lammy specifically noted that the technology 
transfer issue was crucial to the success of climate change 
negotiations in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate 
Change (UNFCCC).  DG Gurry added that IP rights offered the 
necessary incentives to develop green technologies, noting moves by 
several countries to develop systems to fast track the examination 
of patent applications in the area of clean technologies and 
renewable energy.  The IP system offers a proven means of 
encouraging investment in the clean technologies required to adapt 
to and mitigate climate change. 
 
¶4. (U) As referenced in the speeches of UK Minister Lammy and DG 
Gurry, technology transfer of green technology is a key issue among 
NGOs, developing countries and the IP community.  It is also a key 
feature in the UNFCCC, which is slated to have a finalized agreement 
by the end of the year.  Wanna Tanunchaiwatana, Manager of the 
Technology Sub-Program of the UNFCCC, reported that draft language 
concerning technology transfer would commit developed countries 'to 
take all practicable steps to promote, facilitate and finance, as 
appropriate, the transfer of, or access to, environmentally sound 
technologies and know-how to other parties, particularly developing 
country parties' (Article 4.5 of the UNFCCC).  Tanunchaiwatana 
believes that difficulty in negotiating the IP section of the UNFCC 
agreement does not rest with the idea of transferring IP-dependent 
green technologies itself, but with the broader challenge of how to 
implement and encourage the diffusion of all relevant technologies 
to reduce the impacts of climate change on a global scale.  She 
reminded attendees of the short amount of negotiating time remaining 
before the December deadline, and encouraged parties to work through 
the current standstill on IPR in the UNFCCC talks. 
 
¶5. (U) In response to the growing debate on whether the solution to 
climate change should mirror the compulsory license solution reached 
in the WTO for improving access to pharmaceuticals for poor 
countries, economist Daniel Johnson and Chief IP Counsel for General 
Electric Carl Horton noted empirical research illustrating that 
weakening IPR protection for climate change-related technologies is 
an unsound policy and will harm innovation.  It was noted that there 
are very few patents on green technologies (fewer than in the 
pharmaceutical sector), making compulsory licensing unnecessary in 
most cases.  Panelists emphasized that a lack of green technology 
patents in this area shows that IP is not an obstacle to development 
and it allows for open access and further innovation.  They 
concluded that proposals in the UNFCCC for mandatory technology 
transfer and/or compulsory licensing under UNFCCC will have the 
unintended effect of hampering any investment and innovation in this 
area.  It was also highlighted that technology transfer concerns 
must be addressed on a commercial basis and not through government 
enforcement. 
 
Public Health and Traditional Knowledge 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (U) Evident throughout the discussions related to public health 
was a theme calling for 'strong collaborative action' among IGOs and 
the private sector to address questions on IP, trade and public 
health.  WHO Director General Dr. Margaret Chan stated that while 
innovation has a key role to play in new drug development, market 
forces alone are insufficient to ensure the delivery of affordable 
and universal public health solutions.  She noted that both needs- 
and profit-driven incentives should be explored to address both 
access problems faced by the poor and lack of new treatments for 
neglected diseases. 
 
¶7. (U) Dr. Chan said that international agreements can be shaped in 
ways favoring health needs of the poor and cited the May 2008 World 
Health Assembly-adopted resolution on public health, innovation and 
intellectual property, as a model.  According to Dr. Chan, the 
global strategy and plan of action contained in the resolution 
provide agreed-upon lines of action for making health care products 
more accessible and affordable, especially in the developing world. 
Further, Chan noted that creative solutions to address the health 
needs of the poor that complement the IP system include UNITAID's 
patent pool, a voluntary system created with the intent to reduce 
expenses and increase access to IP essential to make medicines that 
are needed by poor countries facing the HIV/AIDS crisis.  Chan also 
cited other IP-complementary solutions, such as WHO's 
pre-qualification program, which helps developing county producers 
achieve necessary quality standards to produce safe and effective 
medicines. 
 
¶8.  (U) World Trade Organization (WTO) Director General Pascal Lamy 
also underlined a need for effective international partnerships. 
With interdependent issues of public health, climate change, 
biodiversity and food security, "no single international agency has 
a monopoly on these diverse areas of policy," said Lamy.  Noting 
that climate change will likely have a severe impact on disease 
patterns and on agriculture, Lamy stressed that the effective use of 
the IP system and of TRIPS flexibilities are important, but do not 
stand alone: IP law and policy must be harnessed with drug 
procurement policies, pro-competition safeguards, and regulation of 
drugs for safety and quality. 
 
¶9. (U) Tony Wood, Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry at Pfizer 
Global Research and Development, noted that IP is absolutely 
essential from the researchers' point of view.  He added that 10 to 
12 years elapse between inventing the right molecule and undertaking 
all the necessary testing and trials to bring it to market. Without 
patents, the research would be held as a trade secret during 
testing, holding back medical research that is aided by disclosure 
in patent applications. 
 
¶10. (U) Joseph Straus of the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual 
Property agreed, saying a precondition of access to medications is 
their existence, which means research and development must be 
incentivized.  Robert Sebbag, Vice President of Access to Medicines 
at Sanofi-Aventis, added that important progress is being made to 
effectively address access to medicine concerns for the poor through 
public and private partnerships.  Moreover, he noted that the 
industry is utilizing alternative models to deliver lower profit 
medicines at higher volumes to treat neglected diseases without 
dismantling the patent system.  He reminded the audience that access 
to affordable medicines is just one piece of the puzzle, and that 
education and communication are key in fighting diseases. 
 
TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE 
--------------------- 
 
¶11. (U) Discussions also centered on the role of traditional 
knowledge in addressing IP and public health concerns.  Claudia Ines 
Chamas, senior advisor in the Secretariat of Sciences and Technology 
and Strategic Inputs at Brazil's Ministry of Health noted that for 
many neglected diseases, the medicines are old, toxic, expensive, or 
in short supply. She stated that access to medicine is not possible 
without reasonable efforts towards increasing local capacity and 
building a local basis of knowledge.  Yonah Seleti, Director General 
of South Africa's Department of Science and Technology stated that 
the "African renaissance can only be borne on the role of indigenous 
knowledge systems".  According to Seleti, indigenous people have 
enormous economic and social potential in their knowledge, but the 
current IP system sometimes fails to protect that knowledge.  It was 
also noted that misappropriation of traditional knowledge must be 
stopped. 
 
¶12. (U) Vinod Kumar Gupta, head of the Information Technology 
Division at the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL), a 
project of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in 
India, reported on his efforts to use the TKDL to catalogue 
traditional knowledge in a patent-like format so that it is easier 
to identify as prior art.  He mentioned that a recent agreement with 
the European Patent Office has made the database available for 
patent examiners to use in grant procedures, and a similar agreement 
is expected soon with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.  He 
concluded by noting that collaborative research between traditional 
knowledge and modern medicine can yield great public health 
benefits, but IP agreements must find ways to protect traditional 
knowledge. 
 
¶13.  (SBU) COMMENT: It should be noted that, though not specifically 
raised at the Conference, the issue of providing IP protection for 
traditional knowledge/access to genetic resources/traditional 
cultural expressions (TKGRTCE) has been examined by Member States 
for several years at WIPO's Intergovernmental Committee (IGC) on 
TKGRTCEs.  WIPO technical assistance units also continue to provide 
essential advice to developing and least developed countries on the 
effective use of existing IP principles and systems for these 
IP-related interests.  All Member States support the need for 
protecting traditional knowledge and are committed to making 
progress on the protection, preservation and promotion of TKGRTCEs. 
However, the Africa Group, along with Brazil, India, Indonesia, 
Iran, Pakistan, and many Caribbean nations are currently demanding 
that an internationally-binding treaty be negotiated at the IGC and 
concluded and signed by Member States in 2012.  Developed countries, 
as well as two developing countries (South Korea and Singapore), 
believe that it would be premature to agree upon the nature of the 
text to be negotiated (i.e. that it would be a binding treaty) 
without a pre-agreement on the content of that text. The U.S. and 
others also maintain that no outcome of the IGC should be precluded, 
including the adoption of a legally binding international 
instrument, but that, at this point, no outcome should be prejudged 
either. END COMMENT 
 
Food Security 
------------- 
 
¶14.  (U)  In opening remarks under the topic of IP and Sustainable 
Agriculture, Algerian Ambassador Idriss Jazaory stated that the 
number of malnourished people in the world has topped one billion. 
WIPO's role here is to ensure that the system for IP protection 
contributes to the creation of new food and agricultural resources, 
but at the same time does not become an obstacle to the most 
vulnerable people in the most vulnerable places having access to 
them, said Jazaory.  He noted that IPR could be used to justify food 
cartels or to alleviate hunger; how this plays out depends on the 
international community. 
 
¶15.  (U) Shakeel Bhatti, Secretary of the International Treaty on 
Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture at the Food and 
Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations added that 
access to seeds has impacted food security. The treaty has, he said, 
made significant breakthroughs in funding its access and benefit 
sharing system, while waiting for the built-in time lag of 5 to 7 
years before commercial products start growing out of it. 
 
¶16.  (U) Kanayo Nwanze, President of the International Fund for 
Agricultural Development (IFAD) noted that it is not tenable to 
separate IP from sustainable development.  Intellectual property 
rights can serve as catalysts for sustainable agricultural growth, 
but there needs to be a shift in thinking on technology development 
from the public/private divide to partnerships and equitable 
benefits for both stakeholders. 
 
¶17.  (U) Richard Jefferson, Chief Executive of non-profit Cambia, 
proposed one way in which the IP system might be set up for improved 
collaboration.  He reported on the Initiative for Open Innovation, a 
new project in collaboration with WIPO and the Gates Foundation 
launched in July 2009, which aims to create a "free, open, global 
web-based facility" that will map in all languages not only patents, 
but also regulatory data and science and technology literature, 
cross-referencing them with key genes and compounds, creating 
'patent landscapes' that will allow for a clear picture of what is 
patented, where it is patented, and who controls it. 
 
¶18.  (U) As a part of the Initiative for Open Innovation, Cambia has 
proposed the creation of a new legal tool they call a 'concord;' a 
mutual agreement not to assert IP rights in a particular field of 
use.  For example, Jefferson said companies might agree not to 
assert any IP rights related to research, development, manufacture, 
delivery or support of malaria interventions.  The patents might be 
enforced for other purposes, but this allows for collaborative 
innovation to solve specific problems, and will reduce costs for 
small players who want to work on such problems. 
 
¶19.  (U) Michael Kock, the Global Head of IP at agriculture 
technology firm Syngenta International, compared the seed industry 
to the entertainment industry, as copying and counterfeits continue 
to be major problems for the seed industry.  He clarified that 
Syngenta does not seek patents for plants/seeds in least developed 
countries or enforce rights used in subsistence farming.  He noted 
that the enforcement issues arise in the context of use by large 
farmers in developed countries.  He continued in emphasizing that 
the disclosure of origin of genetic resources, which has been 
proposed as a way to protect small growers, is problematic because 
it increases uncertainty for innovators and will discourage the use 
of genetic diversity.  A key area that would further innovation in 
the seed industry would be patent harmonization of plant protection, 
as the existing rules under the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related 
Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) allow for protection 
of plant varieties either by patents or by an effective sui generis 
system or by any combination thereof.  As a result, there are 
varying degrees of patent protection for plants from one territory 
to another. 
 
Closing remarks 
--------------- 
¶20.  (SBU) In summarizing the two-day Conference, the Chair of the 
Standing Committee of Patents (SCP), Maximiliano Santa Cruz (Chile), 
noted that IP is not an end in itself, but an instrument to promote 
innovation, creativity and the dissemination of knowledge.  He added 
that while the IP system may present some challenges, it can also be 
part of the solution to development questions.  The SCP Chair noted 
that a common theme during the Conference was that innovation and 
technology coupled with technology transfer is no doubt an important 
contribution to solving problems that may arise in other areas of 
development.  The Chair is charged with reporting back to Member 
States on the outcome of the Conference.  Though proposals have yet 
to be made, certain developing countries are likely to push for 
further discussion of the topics raised at the Conference, 
particularly those concerning technology transfer at future SCP 
meetings, as well as follow up conferences. 
 
¶21.  (U) All PowerPoint Presentations and audio speeches can be 
found at:  http://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/2009/ip_gc_ge / 
program.html 
 
GRIFFITHS#