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Contents

WIPO gets to grips with electronic commerce issuesWIPO’s international Internet domain name consultations

Idris discusses electronic commerce on Canada tripElectronic commerce takes center stage at Budapest symposium

WIPO “Internet treaties” make their mark in the US

Cooperation for developmentNew WIPO Least Developed Countries Unit

“Jacaranda city” hosts regional colloquium on the teaching of IP lawSub-regional colloquium in Malawi on protecting performers’ rights

TRIPS Agreement is focus of Harare meetingForum identifies IP policy priorities

WIPO’s “Internet treaties” take center stage in ShanghaiTraditional medicines and IP rights

Heads of IP offices converge on Dubrovnik for WIPO symposiumKishinev hosts regional seminar on enforcing IP rights

Regional seminar in Kyiv on licensing for scientists and researchersIntellectual Property Week in Jamaica

WIPO studies anti-piracy security device in three Caribbean countriesMERCOSUR countries discuss copyright issues

VisitsDG on official visit to Italy

Spotlight on WIPO Worldwide AcademyParticipants from 75 developing countries attend two major IP training courses

Academy special session concentrates on TRIPSSeminar on industrial property for Latin American countries

Copyright training takes place in Sweden and Switzerland

Global intellectual property issuesSouth Asia mission spotlights traditional knowledge and culture

WIPO treatiesNew diplomatic conference at WIPO

Seventh edition of the Locarno International Classification for Industrial DesignsVideo on Madrid Protocol

New edition of International Patent Classification

WIPO awards

WIPO attends information events in Frankfurt and New York

WIPO Year 2000 statement

National news100 years of IP protection in Croatia

New Thai IP&IT court

Products

Calendar of Meetings

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October 1998

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electronic ■ undertaking an international

process (the WIPO InternetDomain Name Process) to devel-op recommendations regardingthe intellectual property issuesassociated with domain names.

The relevant WIPO home pagesare as follows:

for electronic commerce -http://www.wipo.intfor domain names -http://wipo2.wipo.int

*A practice whereby individuals deliberatelyobtain for themselves domain names thatmatch or are close to some company trade-mark. The practice of “cybersquatters” of sell-ing their domain names to companies thatclaim they are similar or identical to their trade-mark names has aroused some controversy.

WIPO MAGAZINE - OCTOBER 19982

WIPO gets to grips with electroniccommerce issues

The WIPO Magazine is published monthlyby the Office of Global Communicationsand Public Diplomacy, World IntellectualProperty Organization (WIPO). It is notan official record and the views expressedin individual articles are not necessarilythose of WIPO.

The WIPO Magazine is distributed free of charge.

If you are interested in receiving copies,contact: The Publications Officer

WIPO34, chemin des Colombettes P.O. Box 18CH-1211 Geneva 20Switzerlandphone: 41 22 338 91 11fax: 41 22 733 54 28e-mail: [email protected]

For comments or questions, contact:The Editor

WIPO Magazine (at the above address)

Copyright ©1999 World Intellectual PropertyOrganizationAll rights reserved. Articles contained herein may bereproduced for educational purposes. No part may,however, be reproduced for commercial purposes with-out the express written consent of the Office of GlobalCommunications and Public Diplomacy, WorldIntellectual Property Organization, P.O. Box 18, CH-1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland.

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Electronic commerce has assumedmajor economic and policy import-ance as the Internet continues itsremarkable expansion. WIPO hasstepped up measures to tackle theintellectual property issues of keyimportance in maintaining thestable operating environmentneeded for the successful develop-ment of electronic commerce andto raise the global awareness ofelectronic commerce issues.These measures include:

■ the conclusion, in 1996, of thetwo WIPO “Internet treaties”(the WIPO Copyright Treatyand the WIPO Performancesand Phonograms Treaty)

■ the formation of a SteeringCommittee to meet informallywith the Director General andprovide advice on WIPO’sactivities in this area

■ three regional consultation meet-ings to be held in early 1999 inAfrica, Asia, and Latin Americato give information on ways inwhich electronic commerce isaffecting intellectual propertyand to assist interested parties informulating a timely response

■ the holding of a major inter-national conference, inSeptember 1999, following the three regional meetings, toaddress general developmentsin electronic commerce andtheir implications for intellec-tual property and to includeworkshops on areas associatedwith electronic commerce such as the WIPO “Internettreaties”

■ the development of an on-line,Internet-based dispute-resolu-tion system, aimed at the res-olution of disputes involvingintellectual property anddomain names (often arisingfrom “cybersquatting”*)

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ten contributions to the consul-tation process; 848 participantshave attended the series ofworldwide consultations; and1,070 people from 70 countrieshave formally registered to par-ticipate in the Process. Successhas been due in large measureto the wide and varied experi-ence of participants — govern-ment officials, members of thebusiness, legal and public inter-est communities, Internet tech-nologists, and private individuals— in using and administeringthe Domain Name System.

In January and February 1999,a second series of meetings willbe held in Toronto, Singapore,São Paulo, Dakar, Brussels, andWashington, DC, to assist infinalizing WIPO’s recommen-dations to ICANN.

The first series of regional consultations were held in

San Francisco (US)

Brussels (Belgium)

Washington, DC (US)

Mexico City (Mexico)

Cape Town (South Africa)

Asunción (Paraguay)

Tokyo (Japan)

Hyderabad (India)

Budapest (Hungary)

Cairo (Egypt)

Sydney (Australia)

WIPO’s internationalInternet domainname consultations

An intense first series of globalconsultations under the WIPOInternet Domain Name Processhas just drawn to a close. A fruit-ful information-gathering exercisetook place, both by means of adedicated WIPO interactive website on the Internet(http://wipo2.wipo.int) andthrough regional meetings, held ineleven countries throughout theworld from September 23 toNovember 4, 1998.

The WIPO Process aims at devel-oping recommendations concern-ing the intellectual property issuesassociated with Internet domain

names and making them availableto the Internet Corporation forAssigned Names and Numbers(ICANN), a new organization setup to manage the InternetDomain Name System.

The consultations concernedmainly:

■ preventing and resolving dis-putes involving domain namesand trademarks (includingcybersquatting)

■ the need to give special protec-tion on the Internet to well-known trademarks

■ the introduction of new generictop-level domains.

To date, WIPO has received morethan 300 electronic, oral, and writ-


electronic

WIPO gets to grips withelectronic commerce issues

Domain names

The Domain Name System forms a key navigationalsystem for the Internet, allowing computer sites to beaccessed through their own particular domain name,for example, .wipo or .uspto, along with a generic top-level domain (g-TLD), such as .com and .org and .intor a country-code top-level domain (cc-TLD), such as.uk (for the United Kingdom) and .za (for SouthAfrica). The WIPO g-TLD is .int which, along with itsown personalized part of the domain name makes upthe Organization’s electronic address, which iswww.wipo.int. As domain names are easy to remem-ber, they are increasingly being used to advertise, andhelp consumers locate, companies doing business onthe Internet. It is this simple and efficient system which

has spurred and supported the remarkable expansionof global electronic commerce. It has also given rise toa growing number of conflicts between Internetdomain names and trademarks, for example, in theOne in a Million case, successful action was takenagainst a cybersquatter by the owners of significantmarks in the United Kingdom, including Marks &Spencer, J. Sainsbury, Virgin Enterprises, and BritishTelecom. WIPO’s involvement in the intensive world-wide debate on the management of the InternetDomain Name System stems from the urgent need toresolve those conflicts and is a result of its expertise inthe intellectual property area.

The Director General alsoattended a series of roundtablediscussions on themes central tothe evolution and global growthof electronic commerce (such assecurity considerations and theneed to strengthen technologicalinfrastructure), as well as theimportance of raising publicawareness of the potential socialand economic benefits to bederived from it.

* Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Electronic commercetakes center stage atinternational sympo-sium in BudapestRepresentatives from 16European countries attended theWIPO International Symposiumon the Internet, ElectronicCommerce and IntellectualProperty held in Budapest fromOctober 20 to 22, 1998.

Organized in cooperation with theHungarian Patent Office, thesymposium was opened by theMinister of Economy, Mr. AttilaChikán, and attracted some 120participants.

The first day was devoted to anoverview of the challenges for theprotection of intellectual propertyposed by the Internet and elec-tronic commerce. This was fol-lowed by an account of responsesto those challenges in variousregions of the world by Mr. P.Waterschoot, Director, DG XV/E,Commission of the European

Idris discusses elec-tronic commerce onCanada trip

During a visit to Canada at thebeginning of October, theDirector General met with theCanadian Minister for Industry,Mr. John Manley, and other keygovernment officials, businessleaders, and intellectual propertyspecialists for discussions with aparticular emphasis on intellectualproperty issues relating to elec-tronic commerce.

While in Canada, Dr. Idrisaddressed the OECD* MinisterialConference on ElectronicCommerce, which took place inOttawa from October 7 to 9, 1998.During his address, he emphasizedthe complex challenges posed byelectronic commerce to the exist-ing legal framework of intellectualproperty rights and discussedWIPO’s role in establishing appro-priate ground rules for this com-mercial medium in the area ofintellectual property.


The Conference was seen as a“major milestone in the interna-tional community’s efforts tomaximize the economic andsocial benefits” offered by elec-tronic commerce, a mediumwhich is fast assuming major eco-nomic and policy importance(projections suggest that the vol-ume of electronic commercecould rise to US$300 billion bythe year 2000).

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Communities, Brussels, Ms. M.Peters, Register of Copyrights,Copyright Office, Washington(DC), and Mr. S. Alikhan,Hyderabad, India.

The program for the second dayconcentrated on two main topics,the first being the copyright issuesraised by the Internet and elec-tronic commerce, with specific ref-erence to the two WIPO “Internettreaties” (the WIPO CopyrightTreaty and the WIPOPerformances and PhonogramsTreaty). There was agreementamong participants that it was inthe interests of each country thatwished to benefit from theInternet and electronic commerceto ratify or accede to the WIPOInternet treaties and that, in most


Participating countries were:Albania, Bosnia andHerzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia,Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia,Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland,Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Theformer Yugoslav Republic ofMacedonia, and Turkey, as well asHungary.

Ms. Zsuzsa Töröcsik, head of electronic publishing atthe Hungarian Patent Office, addressing participants

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not require a great legislativeeffort. The second topic was theuse of the Internet to obtain infor-mation on, and to administer,intellectual property rights, withparticular emphasis on WIPO’sGlobal Information Network andits Intellectual Property DigitalLibrary (IPDL) project.

The third day was devoted to theBudapest regional consultationas part of WIPO’s internationalInternet Domain Name Processconsultations (see article on page 3).

The symposium was characterizedby stimulating and informativediscussion among the par-ticipants which contribut-ed to clarifying both thechallenges involved andthe possible responsesto those challenges;the proceedings arebeing prepared bythe HungarianPatent Office andpublication isexpected inJanuary 1999.

WIPO “Internettreaties” make theirmark in the US

The two landmark WIPO“Internet treaties”* provided themodel for the new DigitalMillennium Copyright Act thatbecame law in the United Stateson October 28, 1998. In his state-ment at the signing ceremony,

President Clinton referred to thetwo WIPO treaties as “the mostextensive revision of internationalcopyright law in over 25 years.[They] will grant writers, artists,and other creators of copyrightedmaterial global protection frompiracy in the digital age.

”Among other things, the new USlegislation creates penalties foranyone circumventing high-tech-

nology, anti-piracy protections,such as encryption, used toblock un-authorized access orcopying. Vice President Goresaid that “By creating clearrules for the digital highway, we will make commercebetween businesses and withconsumers safer.”

* The WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) andthe WIPO Performances and PhonogramsTreaty (WPPT)

Cooperation for New WIPO LeastDeveloped CountriesUnit

The establishment of WIPO’snew Least Developed Countries(LDCs) Unit is deeply rooted in

the Organization’s commitment tothe cause of development and toalleviating basic developmentalproblems. Indeed, WIPO’sDirector General, Dr. Kamil Idris,has a personal commitment to thecause of LDCs dating back some20 years, to the preparatory meet-ings for the first United NationsConference on the LeastDeveloped Countries, held in Paris in September 1981. Dr. Idris, then a diplomat for his

country, was one of the architects,in those meetings, of the aid tar-get, and the time frame, forresources to be transferred toLDCs from developed countries.This was in addition to his majorcontribution in articulating theproblems of LDCs in the transfer,adoption and development of

technology within the wider context of the Group of 77 devel-oping countries.

The list of “least developed” countries was established by theUN General Assembly in 1971 andis reviewed every three years. Thefirst list comprised 24 countries, thecurrent list has doubled to 48, 33 ofwhich are in Africa, 14 in Asia andthe Pacific, and 1 in the LatinAmerica and Caribbean region.

The current set of criteria foridentifying LDCs are based on:

■ per capita GDP of $765 or less(US$ annual average from1992-1994)

■ augmented physical quality oflife index (APQLI) of 47 or less 1

■ economic diversification index(EDI) of 26 or less; 2

■ population size.

Globalization brought about bytechnological advances involvesarguably the most fundamentalredesign of the world’s politicaland economic arrangements sincethe industrial revolution.Countries whose initial conditionsmake them less suited to takeadvantage of the opportunities pre-sented by globalization are at riskof becoming further marginalized.

At present 39 of the 48 LDCs aremembers of WIPO. The mainframework for concerted WIPOaction to assist developing coun-tries, including LDCs, is in theOrganization’s cooperation fordevelopment program, whichseeks, through the provision oftechnical assistance and coopera-tion with governments, to establishor modernize intellectual propertysystems and, under the policydirectives of the Director General,to develop the human and institu-tional capacities of LDCs.

Currently, WIPO has some 44 pro-jects in 38 LDCs, but there remainsa significant amount of work forthe Organization to do in enhanc-ing national legislation, introducingnew legislation, providing man-power training, and contributing toinstitution-building.

After his election, the DirectorGeneral took a personal initiative

Cooperation for development


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developmentto address the marginalization anddevelopmental problems of LDCs.In his acceptance speech of 22September 1997, he said

“This globe is at the eve of a newcentury. An era of rapid technolog-ical advancement is upon us…Thespeed of change enlarges the gapbetween the most advanced andthe least advanced. I consider it tobe the responsibility of an interna-tional organization to endeavour,through its program of cooperationfor development, to mitigate thedisadvantageous effects of rapidchange on the developing and leastdeveloped countries.”

The establishment of the WIPOLeast Developed Countries Unit in October 1998, following thedecision of the WIPO GeneralAssembly in September of thatyear, is part of that commitment todeal with the special concerns ofLDCs and to improve their overallcapacity to respond to the opportu-nities offered by the globalizingworld economy.

The new Unit will coordinateWIPO’s technical cooperationactivities in LDCs, ensuring thatthey focus on the specific require-ments of the countries concernedand that they complement techni-cal cooperation activities undertak-en by other agencies. In additionto the development activities beingundertaken by WIPO’s regionalbureaus, the Unit will design a pro-gram and highlight a set of activi-ties tailored specifically for LDCs,that will be pursued in close coop-eration with the bureaus.

The focus of the Unit’s objectivesand strategies will be on strength-ening managerial and technicalcapacities and enhancing the abili-ty of public administration and theprivate sector to formulate andimplement appropriate intellec-

tual property policies and to pro-vide the service infrastructure tosupport intellectual property rights.Technical assistance will concen-trate on capacity-building inhuman resource development andinstitution building; preparationsfor the implementation of theAgreement on the Trade-RelatedAspects of Intellectual PropertyRights (TRIPS Agreement); tech-nology transfer; and the use of theInternet and electronic commerce.Special attention will also be givento the enactment of laws, rules andregulations governing intellectual

property in LDCs, in particularwith regard to industrial designs,geographical indications, unfaircompetition, and plant varieties;the protection of traditional knowl-edge and biotechnology and recog-nition of their importance in thedevelopment of LDCs; and theprotection of indigenous technolo-gy and folklore. The Unit will,thus, ensure that the level of tech-nical assistance to LDCs isincreased and that its effectivenessis maximized.


1 APQLI is a composite index of 4 indicators:(i) child mortality, age under 5; (ii) calorie sup-ply as a percentage of minimum daily require-ments, or percentage of population undernour-ished; (iii) adult literacy rate; and (iv) combinedprimary and secondary school enrollment ratio.

2 EDI is a composite of the following indica-tors: (i) combined indicator of manufacturing,and modern services as a share of GDP; (ii)indicator of the concentration of goods andservices exports; (iii) per capita electricity con-sumption per year; and (iv) an indicator of vul-nerability to natural disasters, which is in theprocess of being developed.

LDCs (see list above) are shown in color on the map

Africa (33)

AngolaBeninBurkina FasoBurundiCape VerdeCentral African RepublicChadComorosCongoDjiboutiEquatorial GuineaEritreaEthiopiaGambiaGuineaGuinea-BissauLesothoLiberiaMadagascarMalawiMaliMauritaniaMozambiqueNigerRwandaSao Tome and PrincipeSierra LeoneSomalia

SudanTanzaniaTogoUgandaZambia

Asia&Pacific (14)

AfghanistanBangladeshBhutanCambodiaLao PDRMaldivesMyanmarNepalYemenKiribatiSamoaSolomon IslandsTuvaluVanuatu

Latin America&Caribbean (1)

Haïti

Cooperation for

poseful and sustained coordina-tion of networking activitieswith WIPO support

■ assistance in the design, devel-opment, and application of cur-ricula on intellectual propertylaw subjects

■ increased support for participa-tion of African intellectualproperty teachers andresearchers in the activities of ATRIP

■ technical assistance in the pro-vision of comprehensive infor-mation, advice, and strategiesregarding the obligationsundertaken by African coun-tries under the TRIPSAgreement, particularly regard-ing preparation for the upcom-ing review negotiations

■ assistance in dealing with newdevelopments in the field ofintellectual property

■ support for the setting up of anintensive short-term teachingand training program (“trainerof trainers” program) for teach-ers, trainers, researchers, judi-cial staff, legal practitioners,customs and other law enforce-ment personnel as well as policy-makers at all levels.

“Jacaranda city”hosts regional collo-quium on the teach-ing of IP law

Invited participants from 15 coun-tries as well as many academicsinvolved in the teaching of intel-lectual property law in variousSouth African universities attend-ed the WIPO African RegionalColloquium on the Teaching ofIntellectual Property Law held onthe Sunnyside Campus of theUniversity of South Africa(UNISA) in Pretoria fromOctober 12 to 15, 1998.

A packed three-and-a-half dayprogram included the presentationof 13 papers. Each paper was fol-lowed by an intense debate on theissues involved, enriched by thequality of the interventions madeby the participants, all of whomcame from highly academic back-grounds.

At the close of the colloquium,the participants adopted a resolu-tion recommending that speedyaction be taken by WIPO, incooperation with their respective

national governments and compe-tent authorities, in seven areasthat included:

■ establishment of a network ofteachers and researchers inintellectual property law in theAfrican region

■ intensification of contacts andschemes that can assure pur-


Thousands of jacaranda trees scattered throughout Pretoria give it its nickname of “jacaranda city”

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Participating countries were:Botswana, Eritrea, Ethiopia,Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho,Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius, SierraLeone, Swaziland, Uganda,United Republic of Tanzania, andZimbabwe, as well as South Africa.

University of South AfricaUNISA is a university with noresidential student body, special-izing solely in distance learning.Support services, including videoand teleconferencing services,are delivered from the maincampus, five main learning cen-ters, and eleven satellite learningcenters. The University hassome 124,212 students currentlyenrolled in its various coursesand has more than 450 examina-tion centers worldwide.

UNISA has been teaching intel-lectual property law for morethan 60 years.

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are fundamental for the well-being of performers in Africa.

The first part of the meeting dealtwith the protection of intellectualproperty rights at national andinternational levels and includedanalysis of international treaties, inparticular the WIPO Performancesand Phonograms Treaty and theRome Convention for the Protectionof Performers, Producers ofPhonograms and Broadcasting

Organizations. The second part ofthe meeting covered issues of socialprotection of performers in Africathrough the existing associations orunions and also examined the pos-sibility of establishing infrastruc-tures for the protection of perform-ers’ rights in Africa either withinthe existing collective managementsocieties of authors/unions or asnew organizations.

The success of the colloquiumcame in large measure from:

■ the possibility it gave for per-formers to meet with govern-ment officials and to raise ques-tions of concern


Sub-regional collo-quium on protectingperformers’ rightsheld in Malawi

The first meeting of its kind to beorganized for English-speakingAfrican countries, the WIPO Sub-Regional Colloquium on Intellec-tual Property and the Protectionof Performers’ Rights, attracted 32representatives from governmentsand the national musicians’ andactors’ unions of the English-speaking countries concerned.

The Minister of Education, Sportsand Culture of Malawi traveledspecially from Blantyre to openand to close the colloquium,which was organized in Lilongweby WIPO and the Association ofEuropean Performers’ Organizations(AEPO) in cooperation with theMalawi Government, fromOctober 19 to 21, 1998. The collo-quium aimed to offer a forum forgovernments to meet with per-formers and to tackle issues that

Participating countries were:Botswana, Ghana, Kenya,Lesotho, Mauritius, Mozambique,Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa,Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, andZimbabwe, as well as Malawi.

■ the possibility it gave for per-formers to meet among them-selves and, for the first time,discuss questions of commoninterest, in particular the roleof performers’ unions

■ the quality of the participation,with speakers who focusedadmirably on the African back-ground and reality; theyincluded representatives of theNigerian Copyright

Commission, SENA (theNetherlands), and the SwedishArtists’ and Musicians’Interests Organization (SAMI),professors from Belgium andSouth Africa, and theSecretaries General of FIA(Fédération internationale desacteurs) and FIM (Fédérationinternationale des musiciens).

Representatives from host country, Malawi, at the colloquium in Lilongwe

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Cooperation for

Roving seminar onindustrial propertyheld in Ethiopia

A roving seminar on industrialproperty, organized by WIPO incooperation with the EthiopianGovernment, took place in Nazrethand Bahir Dar from October 14 to16 and from October 19 to 20,1998, respectively.

A message from the DirectorGeneral to seminar participantsstressed the importance of intel-lectual property for developingcountries, especially the leastdeveloped countries, such asEthiopia, in the light of the rapidchanges taking place in the worlddue to technological development.

More than 50 professionals froma number of government agenciesand from the private sectorattended each of the seminars.Participants profited fully fromthe occasion and from the pres-ence of experts from the SwedishPatent Office, the University ofSt. Gallen (Switzerland), and theEthiopian Science and TechnologyCommission, as well as aninventor from Nigeria andWIPO staff members, to askquestions, make comments, andhighlight problem areas with aview to seeking solutions.

Presentations by the experts includ-ed transfer of technology arrange-ments; a strategy for the exploita-tion of patented inventions; how toencourage youth to be inventive;patent documents as a source oftechnological information; and theuse and dissemination of techno-logical information contained inpatent documents in Ethiopia.

TRIPS Agreement is focus of Hararemeeting

The intricacies of the TRIPSAgreement* were thoroughlyexplored during an African intro-ductory course organized inHarare (Zimbabwe) by WIPO incooperation with the AfricanRegional Industrial PropertyOrganization (ARIPO).

The course, which took place fromSeptember 30 to October 9, 1998,brought together some 25 partici-

pants from 17 countries and fromthe Organization of African Unity,and speakers from the AfricanCentre for Technology, ARIPO,the African Intellectual PropertyOrganization (OAPI), aTanzanian university, and twotrademark attorneys’ offices.

The extensive program coveredthe TRIPS Agreement, in depth,as well as relevant WIPO treaties,development cooperation in theintellectual property field (includ-ing WIPO’s cooperation for devel-opment program), technologytransfer and practice in the region,and the practicalities of running anational IP office.

The course met with great satis-faction from the participants, whowere particularly enthusiasticabout the opportunity to under-take practical exercises (usinginformation technology) andexamine case studies. The success

of the course was due in largemeasure to the excellent presenta-tions given by the experts fromthe region.

Participating countries were: Botswana, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya,Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Seychelles, SierraLeone, South Africa, United Republic of Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia,as well as Zimbabwe.


Participants in the WIPO introductory course on the TRIPS Agreement and other aspectsof industrial property

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* Agreement on the Trade-Related Aspects ofIntellectual Property Rights

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Internet facilities to the data-base of the Ethiopian Scienceand Technology Commission

■ close working relationsbetween the national and for-eign patent offices for exchangeof information and experiencesshould be established.

Forum identifies IPpolicy priorities

Senior policy-makers in intellec-tual property from 22 countries ofAsia and the Pacific gathered inJapan to discuss a wide range ofintellectual property policy mat-ters at a recent Forum organizedby WIPO in cooperation with theJapanese Patent Office. TheWIPO Asian Regional Forum onIntellectual Property PolicyDevelopment, held in Tokyo fromOctober 5 to 7, 1998, examinedand identified what those seniorofficials saw as policy prioritiestowards and beyond the turn ofthe century.

Opening speeches were deliveredby the Japanese Minister ofInternational Trade and Industry,Mr. Kaoru Yosano, and WIPODeputy Director General, Mr.Roberto Castelo. Mr. Yosano not-ed that, in its efforts to overcomecertain economic difficulties, hisGovernment envisaged doublingthe nation’s intellectual assets bythe year 2001 through promotinginvestment in technological devel-opment and in information tech-nology, and stressed the impor-tance of giving adequateprotection to intellectual propertyrights. “It is our belief that intel-lectual property boosts nationalwealth,” he said. In his address,Mr. Castelo elaborated uponWIPO’s priorities during the cur-rent and the next biennium, andreiterated the Organization’s com-mitment to assisting the develop-ing and least developed countriesin their efforts to modernize theirintellectual property systems.

Some 90 participants attendedworking sessions devoted to pre-sentations and discussions on fivemain themes, each of which wasfollowed by informative and stim-ulating discussion among thespeakers and participants, whowere mostly the heads of nationalintellectual property offices andsenior officials in the relevantministries.


Blue Nile waterfall, Bahir Dar, Ethopia, one of the sites of the rovingnational seminar

Dr. O.O. Ovadje, a Nigerian inventor,addressing seminarparticipants

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At the conclusion of the seminar,the participants agreed on a set ofrecommendations that included:

■ WIPO technical assistanceshould be enhanced in theareas of training, humanresources, and institutionaldevelopments

■ the Regional Trade and IndustryOffices in Bahir Dar andNazreth should serve as theirrespective regional focal pointsfor intellectual property matters

■ Ethiopia should accede to thevarious WIPO-administeredtreaties, in particular thosewhich are relevant to the devel-opment of an intellectual prop-erty system, taking into accountits national interest

■ celebration of regional scienceand technology week and/ormonth in early 1999 or immedi-ately thereafter, as decided bythe Regional Committee

■ regional offices dealing withintellectual property mattersshould be connected through

Cooperation for

The discussions led to the adoptionof a Joint Statement, highlightingthe major issues of intellectualproperty policy development exam-ined during deliberations in theForum. It covered seven main areas:

■ the international framework forintellectual property and themodernization of the intellectualproperty system

■ global intellectual property issues

■ the development and promo-tion of the industrial and socialuse of intellectual property

■ information technology and theglobal information network

■ effective enforcement mechanisms

WIPO’s “Internettreaties” take centerstage in Shanghai

Experts from Australia, China,Japan, the United States and theEuropean Union joined some 75participants from 14 Asian andPacific countries and the hostcountry, China, in Shanghai for aregional workshop on copyrightand the WIPO “Internet treaties”(the WIPO Copyright Treaty(WCT) and the WIPOPeformances and PhonogramsTreaty (WPPT)) and a regionalconsultation concerning a protocolon audiovisual performances andrelated matters. The two eventswere organized by WIPO in coop-eration with the NationalCopyright Administration ofChina (NCAC) on October 12 and13 and on October 14 to 16, 1998,respectively.


Mr. Castelo during his opening address toparticipants in the Forum

■ human resource development

■ strengthening cooperationamong developing countries inthe Asia and the Pacific region.

Participants expressed their satis-faction with the relevance of thesubject matter of the Forum andthe contribution it had madetowards strengthening intellectualproperty systems.

The high-level representation,active interchange, and adoptionof the Joint Statement resultedin a very successful outcome,providing policymakers with avaluable opportunity to elabo-rate strategies to address policychallenges in the field of intel-lectual property.

Participating countries wereBangladesh, Brunei Darussalam,Fiji, Indonesia, Malaysia,Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan,Philippines, Republic of Korea,Samoa, Singapore, Sri Lanka, andThailand, as well as China.

Participating countries wereBangladesh, Bhutan, BruneiDarussalam, Cambodia, China,India, Indonesia, Iran (IslamicRepublic of), Laos, Malaysia,Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal,Pakistan, Papua New Guinea,Philippines, Republic of Korea,Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand,and Viet Nam, as well as Japan.

development

During the workshop, key issuesconcerning the implementationof the Internet treaties from theviewpoint of rights owners andservice providers and from thatof public interest were presented,followed by discussion concern-ing adhesion to, and implementa-tion of, the new treaties, in gen-eral, and in the Asia and Pacificregion, in particular.

The regional consultation dis-cussed proposals received byWIPO concerning a protocol tothe WPPT on audiovisual perfor-mances; the speakers from Japan,the United States, and theEuropean Union presented theirown countries’ proposals directly.The representatives of the Asiaand Pacific group then discussedthe proposals and formulated itsown opinion, which was submit-ted to the WIPO StandingCommittee on Copyright andRelated Rights that will meet inGeneva in November (see thenext issue of this Magazine).

Traditionalmedicines and IP rights

An enthusiastic reception wasgiven to the first WIPO seminarto deal with intellectual propertyrights issues in the field of tradi-tional medicines. Held in NewDelhi from October 7 to 9, 1998,it was attended by 25 govern-ment representatives responsiblefor IP rights and traditionalmedicines from 14 countries inthe region and by some 30 localparticipants.

The seminar was organized joint-ly by WIPO, the Indian min-istries of health and of industry,

and the Association of Chambersof Commerce and Industries ofIndia (ASSOCHAM) and wasopened by the Indian Ministerfor Health, Mr. Dalit Ezhilmalai.In his address, the Ministerthanked WIPO for its initiativein tackling the issues and notedthe urgency involved, stating that

“due to non-availability ofexhaustive information in a codi-fied manner, patent and trade-mark rights have been awardedfor subjects…covered under tradi-tional medicines, knowledge andexperience already known, and,therefore, in the public domain.”

With the aid of five foreignspeakers from China, Indonesia,the Republic of Korea, theEuropean Patent Office, and theWorld Health Organization andtwo local speakers, the Seminarsought to:

■ identify the intellectual prop-erty needs, rights and expec-tations of the holders andpractitioners of indigenousmedicines

■ identify measures to promotethe contribution of intellectualproperty systems to the devel-opment of traditional medicines.

In an intense exchange of infor-mation and views, speakers andparticipants discussed manyissues including patentability in

the fields of biotechnology andpharmacology; the use ofdatabases of indigenous knowl-edge and traditional medicines(including those created by theWHO in cooperation with someof its member States) as a basisfor international IP protection;and providing healers andherbalists with easy access to relevant databases in their locallanguage as part of a benefit-sharing program to widen their knowledge.


Participating countries wereBangladesh, Bhutan, China, Fiji,Indonesia, Iran (Islamic Republicof), Malaysia, Mongolia,Philippines, Republic of Korea,Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand,and Viet Nam, as well as India.

Cooperation for

Heads of IP officesconverge onDubrovnik for WIPOsymposium

The heads and leading staff mem-bers of the industrial propertyoffices of 25 countries in transitionattended a three-day WIPOSymposium on IntellectualProperty and Industrial PropertyOffices in Countries in Transitionfrom September 28 to 30, 1998 inDubrovnik, Croatia.

In total, some 50 participantstook part in the lively discussionthat followed the presentation ofeach of the program topics dur-

ing this very active symposium,organized by WIPO in coopera-tion with the Croatian StateIntellectual Property Office.Several participants also submit-ted written comments.

The program topics were:

■ the role of industrial propertyoffices in the economic develop-ment of countries in transition

■ special legislative issues con-cerning the implementation ofthe TRIPS Agreement, withspecial attention to biotechnol-ogy and computer technology

■ information technology, elec-tronic commerce, and intellec-tual property.

All participants expressed thewish for a similar meeting to beconvened in 1999, focusing on thedevelopment of the managementof IP offices in countries in transi-tion. Such a subject was of partic-ular relevance as new offices hadbeen established in 17 of thecountries of the region only a fewyears previously and these offices,in particular, were in need of helpin dealing with a number of man-agement problems.

Kishinev hostsregional seminar onenforcing IP rights

Some 138 participants from 9countries, mainly from patent andcopyright offices, ministries of jus-tice, the judiciary, the police, andcustoms authorities, met inKishinev in the Republic ofMoldova on October 21, 1998 forthe start of a two-day regionalseminar on the enforcement ofintellectual property rights.

The seminar, which was organizedin cooperation with the StateAgency on Industrial PropertyProtection (AGEPI), was openedby the Deputy Prime Minister ofthe Republic of Moldova, Mr.Oleg Stratulat, and receivedextensive media coverage.Speakers included representativesof the World CustomsOrganization, the Dutch andBelgian Anti-CounterfeitingAssociations, and theInternational Federation of thePhonographic Industry.

The topics under discussionincluded the TRIPS Agreement(with particular reference toenforcement, trademarks, geo-graphical indications, and copy-right and related rights); therole of customs in enforcementof IP rights; and enforcementwith respect to trademark coun-terfeiting and with respect tocopyright piracy.

Discussion centered on:

■ the insufficiency of legislativeprovisions covering action bythe police or customs officials

■ the lack of cooperationbetween various governmentbodies involved in enforcementprocedures


Participating countries wereAlbania, Armenia, Azerbaijan,Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina,Bulgaria, Czech Republic,Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan,Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania,Poland, Republic of Moldova,Romania, Russian Federation,Slovakia, Slovenia, Tajikistan, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkmenistan,Ukraine, and Uzbekistan, as wellas Croatia.

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Participants in the Dubrovnik symposium during the presentation of one of the program topics

development

Visit of delegationfrom RussianFederation

A delegation comprisingfive members of the StateDuma (parliament) of thethe Russian Federation andtwo officials of the MoscowBar Association visitedWIPO headquarters inOctober. The delegationreviewed current legislativeissues related to the pro-posed intellectual propertychapter of the Civil Codeof the Russian Federation;the implementation of theTRIPS Agreement; andissues linked to the coun-try’s interest in the WIPOCopyright Treaty and theWIPO Performances andPhonograms Treaty.

■ the lack of technical and finan-cial resources

■ the lack of initiative fromrights holders in attackingcounterfeit goods

■ the need for the State to intro-duce procedures aimed at easi-er discovery of counterfeit orpirated goods, for example, byattaching numbers or holo-grams (see WIPO studies anti-piracy security device in threeCaribbean countries on page 16.)

Regional seminar onlicensing for scien-tists and researchersheld in Kyiv

The Great Hall of the Presidiumof the Ukrainian NationalAcademy of Sciences (NASU)was the venue for the WIPORegional Seminar for Scientistsand Researchers on Licensingorganized in cooperation withNASU and the Ukrainian StatePatent Office in Kyiv fromOctober 5 to 7, 1998.

The seminar was attended by amassive 327 participants, including35 from the national academies ofscience and patent offices of the 11CIS countries (Armenia,

Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia,Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Republicof Moldova, Russian Federation,Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, andUzbekistan) and of Hungary andYugoslavia.

At the opening of the seminar, aWIPO Gold Medal was awardedto Mr. Boris Paton, Academicianand President of NASU and of theInternational Association of the


Participating countries wereArmenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus,Georgia, Hungary, Romania,Russian Federation, and Ukraine, as well as the Republicof Moldova.

Academies of Sciences (IAAS),who is the creator of more than500 inventions, mainly in the fieldof electrical welding. The openingand award ceremony receivedextensive television coverage.

The presentations at the semi-nar, given by experts fromFrance, Germany, and theRussian Federation, included:

■ the valuation of intangibleassets for the purposes oflicensing

■ negotiation skills for licensingtechnology

■ methods of calculating thelicense fee

■ franchising.

Discussion among participantscentered on topics such as thelack of development of licensingactivities in most academic bod-ies and the possibility of creatinga coordination body within theIAAS to exchange experiencesand to develop commonapproaches to licensing.

Mr. Boris Paton, President of NASU and the IAAS, receiving a WIPO Gold Medal for hisoutstanding contribution as an inventor

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Cooperation for

sentations from experts from theWorld Trade Organization, theMax Planck Institute (Germany),CARICOM, the CanadianCopyright Licensing Agency,Microsoft, and the IntegratedCopyright Group Inc.

WIPO studies anti-piracy securitydevice in threeCaribbean countries

In response to requests from thegovernments of Jamaica,Barbados, and Trinidad andTobago, WIPO conducted a feasi-bility study on the possible imple-mentation in those countries ofantipiracy security devices knownas Banderoles, to be used onmusic sound carriers such as CDs,music cassettes, and vinyl records.

Intellectual PropertyWeek in JamaicaThe week of October 12 to 16,1998, was officially designatedIntellectual Property Week by theGovernment of Jamaica and aseries of events were organized bythe Ministry of Commerce andTechnology in collaboration withWIPO. Intellectual PropertyWeek was opened by the Ministerof Commerce and Technology, Mr.Phillip Paulwell and the DeputyDirector General of WIPO, Mr.Roberto Castelo.

The aim of the Week was to pro-vide a forum for discussion andinformation gathering on intellec-tual property and to increaseawareness of the need for intellec-tual property rights protection.

Events included a WIPO work-shop on intellectual property forthe University of the West Indies,a WIPO symposium on intellectu-al property for the judiciary, and aWIPO national seminar on intel-lectual property rights, with pre-


circles to sensitize them to the rel-evant issues involved, WIPO con-ducted a fact-finding mission tothe three countries, from October11 to 24, 1998. The missionreceived extensive media coveragein all three countries and discus-sions on the issues took place ontelevision and radio, at publicmeetings, and with all levels ofconcerned government depart-ments.

A report has been submitted toministers in charge of intellectualproperty in the three countries, tothe heads of the IP offices, and toall other interested parties. It wasalso decided to circulate thereport to heads of IP offices inother developing countries to helpin assessing intellectual property,economic, and piracy relatedissues in the respective musicindustries.

The Banderole is a specially treat-ed sticker, sequentially numbered,and often used in conjunction withholograms, officially placed onmusic sound carriers, to distin-guish between legal and illegal orpirated copies. Other, ancillarybenefits can accrue from a well-created Banderole system, such asaccurate music sales data, a dis-pute resolution mechanism, cre-ation of a cultural developmentfund, and revenue enhancementfor the government.

After a background paper hadbeen distributed to all interested

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WIPO workshop on IP for the University of the West IndiesA workshop aimed at promoting the management and teachingof intellectual property for the University of the West Indies(UWI) was held on the national campuses of the University inTrinidad and Tobago (October 5 and 6); Barbados (October 8and 9); and Jamaica (October 12 and 13).

Speakers from Spain, the United Kingdom, and the UnitedStates as well as academics from the UWI presented a compre-hensive range of topics, including the use of protected matterfor educational purposes; ownership of intellectual property inuniversities; the role of a university IP office in the selectivedissemination of technological information; universities andresearch contracts and industry; and commercial exploitationof intellectual property and know-how.

Visits

development

and Tourism of Brazil. The meet-ing was aimed at promoting theexchange of information andexploring areas of coordinationand cooperation among the MER-COSUR countries in the field ofcopyright and related rights.

The experts discussed possibleharmonization of laws and coordi-nation of policies in specific areas,including duration of rights, col-lective management, satellite andcable transmission, and exhaus-

tion of rights, as well as possibleharmonization of policies concern-ing enforcement procedures, anti-piracy measures, and trade facili-tation.

At the end of the meeting, theexperts requested that WIPOorganize other such meetings andspecified a number of studiesthey would like WIPO to under-take in relation to copyright andrelated rights in the MERCOSURcountries.


MERCOSUR coun-tries discuss copy-right issues

Government experts from thefour MERCOSUR countries(Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, andUruguay) participated in a meet-ing in Rio de Janeiro, fromOctober 19 to 21, 1998, organizedby WIPO in cooperation with theMinistry of Industry, Commerce

DG on official visitto Italy

A full program of events had beenprepared for Dr. Idris’s first offi-cial visit to Italy on September 24and 25, 1998.

In Rome, the Director Generalmet with Under-Secretaries ofState Mr. Salvatore Ladu(Ministry of Industry and Trade),Mr. Rino Serri (Ministry ofForeign Affairs), and Mr. ArturoParisi (Office of the Council ofMinisters). Among the subjectsdiscussed were the orientation ofthe Organization’s program andbudget for 1998-99, and thestrengthening of cooperationbetween WIPO and Italy.

Dr. Idris attended, as a guest ofhonor, a seminar held by LUISS, auniversity specialized in businessadministration, and by the ItalianSociety of Authors and Publishers(SIAE) at which he gave a presen-tation on the current role ofWIPO on the threshold of thenew millennium.

In Milan, the Director Generalvisited the Italian Organizationfor Unification (UNI) and spokeat a seminar organized at UNI bythe Intellectual Property Centre(IPC) on New Ways ofDeveloping and ManagingIntellectual Property in Italy.

Visits

Dr. Idris with Professor Gustavo Ghidini, professor of industrial law at LUISS University

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Worldwide

There is growing realization of thevital importance of intellectualproperty as the oil that keeps theglobal economy moving. This hasresulted in national and interna-tional intellectual property sys-tems being thrust into ever greaterprominence and subjected toincreasingly heavy demands. Suchchallenges cannot be met withoutthe availability of trained, compe-tent staff. The WIPO WorldwideAcademy is dedicated to the

development of these humanresources, an essential componentin national and internationalefforts to modernize and effective-ly use the intellectual propertysystem. The main elements of itsprogram are:

■ training, teaching, and advisoryservices using information tech-nology, including distance-learning approaches and a ped-agogic guidance andinformation service

■ inter-regional training courses,fellowships, and internships

■ meetings on intellectual proper-ty issues for policy advisors,decision-makers, and specialtarget groups.

The following are some of theactivities the Academy has under-taken in the past few months.


Spotlight on the WIPOWorldwide Academy

Participants from 75developing countriesattend two major IPtraining courses

Some 150 participants from 75developing countries attended twomajor training courses on industri-al property and on copyright andrelated rights, organized by theWIPO Worldwide Academy inSeptember and October. Bothbegan by a three-day introductoryseminar at WIPO headquarters inGeneva, following which partici-pants split into small groups, eachof which received up to threeweeks of intensive training on spe-cific IP issues in a host country.

Over 100 participants from 60developing countries attended theindustrial property training coursein September. In addition, theintroductory seminar was alsoattended by some 50 members of

Participants in the industrial property training course at the CEIPI in Strasbourg

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Participants in the training course on copyright and related rights at WIPOheadquarters in Geneva

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the national permanent missionsin Geneva as well as representa-tives of some of the nationaloffices who were conducting thefurther training.

Following the seminar, partici-pants, divided into small groups,were assigned either to a nation-al industrial property office inAustria, Egypt, France (in coop-eration with the Center forInternational Industrial PropertyStudies (CEIPI), Strasbourg),Germany, Morocco, theNetherlands, Portugal, orSweden or to the EuropeanPatent Office or the BeneluxPatent Office. This further train-ing focused on areas such aspatent documentation and infor-mation, patent searching andexamination techniques, andlegal, administrative, and econom-ic aspects of industrial property.

Furthermore, participants in thecourse organized in Strasbourghad two weeks of practical train-ing at the national industrial prop-erty offices of Bulgaria, Canada,Czech Republic, Finland, France,Hungary, Israel, South Africa, and Switzerland.

Over 50 participants from 45developing countries and from theSouth African DevelopmentCommunity (SADC) attended thetraining course on copyright and

related rights; the introductoryseminar was also attended bysome 30 members of the nationalpermanent missions in Geneva aswell as representatives of some ofthe copyright organizations andnational offices who were con-ducting the further training.

As with the industrial propertycourse, following the seminar, the

participants split up into groups,with each group being assignedeither to a national copyrightoffice or copyright organization inAlgeria, Finland, France, Portugal,Spain, or Switzerland.

* Those countries in blue participated only inthe industrial property training course andthose in red participated only in the copyrighttraining course.


Participants came from*

Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Bangladesh, Barbados, Benin, Botswana,Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic,Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Cuba, DominicanRepublic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Grenada, Guinea,Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya,Kuwait, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia,Morocco, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Panama,Pakistan, Palestine, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Republic ofKorea, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sudan,Suriname, Swaziland, Syrian Arab Republic, Thailand, Togo, Trinidad andTobago, Tunisia, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Venezuela,Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Academy specialsession concentrateson TRIPS

The Tavrichesky Palace in St.Petersburg was the venue for awatershed special session of theWIPO WorldwideAcademy inJune/July 1998. It was the firstsession of the Academy for seniorpolicy-making government offi-cials to be held outside WIPOheadquarters and the first to bedevoted entirely to one subject –the Agreement on the Trade-Related Aspects of IntellectualProperty Rights (TRIPSAgreement).

Organized at the specific requestof the 12 participating countries,which were in the process of nego-tiating accession to the World

Trade Organization, the programof the session concentrated, inparticular, on the legislative revi-sions and administrative arrange-ments that had to be put in placeto fulfill TRIPS obligations.

Nine foreign speakers were invit-ed by WIPO, from the WorldTrade Organization (Geneva), theEuropean Commission (Brussels),the US Patent and TrademarkOffice (Washington, DC), theEuropean Patent Office (Munich),the World Customs Organization(Regional Intelligence LiaisonOffice, Warsaw), the InternationalFederation of the PhonographicIndustry (London), theInternational Intellectual PropertyAlliance (Washington, DC), andthe International TrademarkAssociation Enforcement Unit(London).

The 25 participants included twodeputy ministers of justice, a mem-ber of parliament, and twelveheads of industrial property officesand/or copyright administrations.

The objectives of the sessions wereto inform participants of the mainelements and current issues relat-ing to intellectual property and tohighlight the policy considerationsbehind them. It was hoped thatthe sessions would enhance theability of participants, on theirreturn to their respective countries,to contribute to the formulation ofgovernment policies on intellectualproperty questions, particularly oncultural, social, technological, andeconomic development.


Participating countries were:Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus,Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,Republic of Moldova, Tajikistan,Turkmenistan, Ukraine, andUzbekistan, as well as RussianFederation.

Spectacular architecture in the specialsession’s host city, St Petersburg

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Participants at the WIPO Worldwide Academy special session in St. Petersburg

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Geneva sessions for policy-makersTwo “ordinary” sessions ofthe WIPO Worldwide Academyfor senior policy-makinggovernment officials wereheld at WIPO headquartersin June 1998, for partici-pants from 14 countriesfrom Asia and the Pacificand Central and EasternEurope1, and from theOrganization of AfricanUnity, and in July 1998, forparticipants from 14 LatinAmerican countries2.1 Albania, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Bosniaand Herzegovina, China, India, Indonesia,Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Viet Nam.2 Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Cuba,Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico,Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru,Uruguay, and Venezuela.

Worldwide Academy

Introducing intellec-tual property – on CD-ROM

In the autumn of 1998, the WIPOWorldwide Academy issued anInternet reactive CD-ROM con-taining an introduction to intellec-tual property in electronic form.The CD-ROM was designed prin-

cipally to form part of theAcademy’s distance learning program but is also used as back-ground information for those whowill be attending Academy ses-sions and the introductory semi-nars on intellectual property.

The content of the CD-ROM iscurrently being adapted into afully structured distance-learningcourse for Internet delivery inearly 1999.


Participants at WIPO headquarters in Geneva after ten days of copyright training in Stockholm

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Seminar on industrialproperty for LatinAmerican countriesRio de Janeiro was the host for aseminar on industrial property forLatin American countries, orga-nized jointly by WIPO and theNational Institute of IndustrialProperty (INPI) of Brazil, fromOctober 13 to 23, 1998.

It was attended by 14 participantsfrom 13 Latin American countriesand from the Secretariat forEconomic Integration of CentralAmerica (SIECA).

Topics treated during the intensivenine days of meetings included theprocessing of patents, trademarks,industrial designs and geographi-cal indications; the role of nation-al offices in the transfer of tech-nology; licensing and franchisingagreements; and the INPIautomation program and adminis-trative appeals system.

The following countries were rep-resented: Argentina, Chile,Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba,Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras,Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay,Peru, and Uruguay.

Participants came from Botswana,China, Colombia, Costa Rica, ElSalvador, Ghana, India, Jordan,Lebanon, Malawi, Palestine, Peru,South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan,Thailand, Uganda, UnitedRepublic of Tanzania, andZimbabwe.

Copyright trainingtakes place in Swedenand Switzerland

Twenty participants from aroundthe world attended a trainingcourse on copyright and relatedrights that began in Stockholm(from August 17 to 26) and endedat WIPO headquarters in Geneva(on August 27 and 28).

Organized by WIPO in coopera-tion with the SwedishGovernment and with the assis-tance of the Swedish InternationalDevelopment CooperationAgency (Sida), the very compre-hensive training course covered

national and international protec-tion, in general, as well as concen-trating on certain specific topics,such as the World TradeOrganization and the TRIPSAgreement, the protection offolklore, and the two WIPO“Internet treaties” (the WIPOCopyright Treaty and the WIPOPerformances and PhonogramsTreaty).

Global intellecproperty issue

Ayurvedic medicine is a holisticsystem of healing that evolvedamong the Brahmin sages ofIndia some 3,000 to 5,000 yearsago. Several elements distin-guish it from other approaches tohealth care, for example:

● it focuses on maintaining over-all balance of energy rather thanon individual symptoms

● it applies remedies that arematched to the constitution ofeach specific individual

● it recognizes the indivisibilityof mind and body and seeks toheal fragmentation and disorderof that mind-body complex.

South Asia missionspotlights traditionalknowledge and culture

A better understanding of theintellectual property needs andexpectations relating to the cultur-al heritage and wealth of tradi-tional knowledge in South Asiawas the goal of a recent WIPOfact-finding mission to the region.It is the third in a series of suchmissions to all regions of theworld that seeks to explore thedifficulties that confront holdersof traditional knowledge in tryingto protect their creativity andinnovation.

The mission met with a widerange of experts during its travelsin Sri Lanka, India, andBangladesh.

Work began in Colombo (SriLanka) where discussions at theMinistry of Cultural Affairs andthe Academy of Sri LankanCulture highlighted both the tan-gible aspects of the nation’s cul-ture, such as architecture, and thedeeply rooted intangible aspects,such as folktales and traditionalmusic. The rich plant resources ofthe island were the subject ofmeetings with the EnvironmentalFoundation, which is examiningissues related to biodiversity inthe country, and with officialsfrom the Ministry of Health andIndigenous Medicine, who areinvolved in a project funded by

the World Bank to document themedicinal plants of the island.The mission also visited theResearch Institute for IndigenousMedicine where they had detaileddiscussions with researcherstrained in Ayurvedic medicine.

Travelling on to India, the missionvisited Chennai, where traditionalagricultural practices and the con-servation and documentation ofplant genetic resources were thesubject of discussion during a visitto the M. S. SwaminathanResearch Foundation. InBombay, talks with the DirectorGeneral of the Indian PerformingRights Society centered on possi-ble protection of Indian tradition-al music and literature. En routefor New Delhi, the missionstopped at Ahmadabad to partici-pate in a one-day Consultation onIntellectual Property Rights ofGrassroots Innovators duringwhich they met with a large num-ber of artists, farmers, traditionalhealers and herbalists and otherinformal innovators. Topics dis-cussed included:

■ whether specific instruments ofintellectual property rights pro-tection are needed for individu-al, collective, or combined inno-vations

■ how scientists, NGOs and inno-vative communities and individ-uals who contribute to develop-ing and adding value toinnovations can share in therights and receive returns fromthose rights

■ whether certain knowledgeshould be considered outsidethe patent regime.

Many of the grassroots innovatorswho participated in theConsultation work together asSRISTI (the Society for Researchand Initiatives for SustainableTechnologies and Institutions) andare trying to use the patent sys-tem to protect their traditionalknowledge and innovations. Forexample, they have amassed thetraditional knowledge of 15 veteri-nary healers to produce a veteri-nary medical kit for which theyhave filed a patent application.


Global intellectualproperty issues

ectuales New revision of the Locarno International

Classification for Industrial Designs

A new (seventh) edition of the International Classification forIndustrial Designs established under the Locarno Agreementof 1968 has just been published by WIPO, in English and French.It contains 32 classes and 223 subclasses and an alphabeticallist of goods that has 6,600 entries, from “Aspirators (Saliva -)[dental]” to “Zip fasteners (Sliders of -)”. The new edition ofthe Classification will enter into force on January 1, 1999.

In New Delhi, the mission metwith numerous government min-istries, research institutes, andNGOs as well as participating inthe WIPO Asian RegionalSeminar on Intellectual PropertyIssues in the Field of TraditionalMedicines (see the report of thisseminar on page 13).

Moving on to Lucknow, the mis-sion focused its attention on issuesrelated to traditional knowledgeof medicinal plants, with discus-sions with the Indian Institute ofManagement, the CentralInstitute of Medicinal andAromatic Plants and the CentralDrug Research Institute.

The mission ended in Dhaka(Bangladesh) where discussionswith a wide range of governmentofficials concentrated on the roleof intellectual property rights andtraditional knowledge in the agri-culture of the country. The mis-sion also held meetings with a pri-vate sector company usingtraditional medicinal knowledgefrom the Unani tradition to pro-duce and market herbal products.

New diplomatic con-ference at WIPO

At a meeting at WIPO headquar-ters on October 5 and 6, 1998,member States decided to hold aDiplomatic Conference in Genevafrom June 16 to July 6, 1999 tonegotiate and adopt a new Act ofthe Hague Agreement Concerningthe International Deposit ofIndustrial Designs.

The Hague Agreement is one of21 treaties currently administeredby WIPO (for the text of thosetreaties and the lists of memberStates, visit WIPO’s web site athttp://www.wipo.int). It was signedin 1925 and revised several times –most recently in 1979 – but a newAct has now become necessary.The text of the basic proposal forthis new Act and its regulations arealso available on WIPO’s web site.

The beauty of the Agreement isthat it simplifies the procedures

and reduces costs for those wish-ing to register industrial designsby allowing them to make a singleinternational deposit with WIPOthat has effect in all or any of the29 States party to the Agreement.

The facilities offered by theAgreement are well used – morethan 6,200 deposits, renewals, orprolongations of internationalindustrial designs were made withWIPO in 1997 – and prospects forgrowth in this area in the comingyears are bright.


WIPOtreaties

The member States of the HagueAgreement are: Belgium, Benin,Bulgaria, Côte d’Ivoire, DemocraticPeople’s Republic of Korea,Egypt, France, Germany, Greece,Holy See, Hungary, Indonesia,Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg,Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco,Netherlands, Republic ofMoldova, Romania, Senegal,Slovenia, Spain, Suriname,Switzerland, The former YugoslavRepublic of Macedonia, Tunisia,and Yugoslavia (29).

WIPOawards

New video onMadrid Protocol

WIPO has just produced its firstvideo – Protecting Your TrademarkAbroad: The Madrid Protocol.It is aimed at encouraging trade-mark owners in the UnitedKingdom to use the system for theinternational registration of marksset up under the Madrid Protocol;but it also provides a simple, gen-eral introduction to the Protocoland its advantages.

New edition ofInternational PatentClassification

The last meeting of theInternational Patent ClassificationCommittee (IPC) of Experts inthe current (sixth) revision cycletook place on 21 to 29, October,1998. The 21 members of the

In October 1998, WIPO goldmedals were awarded to inventorsfrom Italy and Malaysia.

Andrea Surace received a WIPOgold medal for best young inven-tor at the Inventions Exhibition inReggio Emilia (Italy), held onOctober 25, 1998, for a motorizedleisure vehicle for use on water.

A WIPO gold medal for bestinvention was given to MohamadSulong and Ronnie C. W. Tan atthe 1998 International Invention,Innovation, Industrial Design andTechnology Exhibition (I-TEX’98), which was held from October10 to 13, 1998 near Kuala Lumpur(Malaysia). Mr. Sulong and Mr.Tan had invented a new processfor clarifying crude palm oil slurryby filtration.


The video was given its first show-ing, outside WIPO, in September,at the Congress of the CharteredInstitute of Patent Agents (CIPA)in London, where it was very wellreceived.

Copies of the video, which is inVHS-PAL format and lasts tenminutes, can be purchased fromthe WIPO Information ProductsSection for 20 S.Frs.

To date, the video has been request-ed for audiences as far-ranging asArmenia, Kenya, and Sweden.

Committee who were representedfinalized their work regardingamendments to the IPC. Thisclears the way for the preparationof the seventh edition of theClassification, which will be pub-lished in paper and electronic form(on CD-ROM and on the Internet)in June 1999 and will enter intoforce on January 1, 2000.

WIPO treaties

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Increasing publicknowledge of theOrganization and its work

For the first time in many years,WIPO attended the FrankfurtBook Fair, which takes place eachyear in early October. TheOrganization’s booth was one of20 manned by the various special-ized agencies that were set upwithin the common stand orga-nized by the United Nations. TheFair, open to professionals in thebook trade from Wednesday to

Friday and to the public at theweekend, is one of the mostimportant in the world, spreadingover 18 floors in six different halls,with a shuttle bus to carryexhibitors and visitors from onehall to another.

Later in the month, WIPO set upa stand, again alongside the otherspecialized agencies, at the UNInformation Fair that took placein New York from 20 to 23October 1998. The Fair wasopened by the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations,Ms. Louise Fréchette and was heldin the main entrance hall of theUN Secretariat building.

WIPO attends information eventsin Frankfurt and New York


WIPO staff members from Genevaheadquarters and the New York CoordinationOffice at the UN Information Fair

WIPO Year 2000 statementWIPO plans to continue to do business through the millenniumboundary and is taking all necessary steps to ensure thatproblems do not occur with dates and leap years.

The current situation within WIPO with regard to preparations forthe year 2000 is as follows:

1. An assessment has been made throughout WIPO to identify areasconcerned within the Organization. This assessment is nowbeing verified.

2. Plans to implement a number of minor changes are under discus-sion.

3. All work to complete the preparations is scheduled to be finishedby the end of 1998.

4. WIPO’s preferred input is a four digit year.

Please address any questions or suggestions to [email protected]

100 years of IP pro-tection in Croatia

A symposium to celebrate the“long historical tradition of intel-lectual property in Croatia”,stretching back over 100 years,took place on November 3, 1998in Zagreb. Entitled In the SecondCentury of the Existence ofIntellectual Property in Croatia, itwas organized by the StateIntellectual Property Office, underthe auspices of the President ofthe Republic, Dr. Franjo Tudjman,and was opened by the President’spersonal representative, ProfessorIvica Kostovic.

Among some 100 participantswere the heads of the intellectualproperty offices of Austria, Bosniaand Herzegovina, Germany andPoland and representatives fromthe IP offices of Hungary,Slovenia, The former YugoslavRepublic of Macedonia, and theEuropean Patent Office.

Eight papers were presented onthe history of the intellectualproperty system in Croatia byacademics, government represen-tatives, and invited foreign speak-ers, including a WIPO staff mem-ber, who spoke on The WorldIntellectual Property Organization– Responses to the Challenges ofthe New Age.

The IP office of Croatiawas established

in 1992 as theRepublic

IndustrialProperty Office.

In 1996, its compe-tencies were

widened to includecopyright matters, and

it became eventuallythe State Intellectual

Property Office, as it isknown today.

During this short period thenational office has developed intoa well-functioning entity, withup-to-date automation and com-puterization of its operations.The number of trademark appli-cations has almost doubled from924 in 1992 to 1,708 in 1997 andthe number of patent applica-tions has increased from 620 in1992 to just over 700 in 1997.Croatia is a member of themajor WIPO treaties, includingthe Madrid AgreementConcerning the InternationalRegistration of Marks and thePCT (since June 1998).

New Thai IP&IT court

The new Thai Central IntellectualProperty and International TradeCourt has been set up in order toallow Thailand – a member of theWorld Trade Organization – tobetter “fulfill its obligations underthe Agreement on Trade-RelatedAspects of Intellectual PropertyRights (TRIPS Agreement) andto create a user-friendly forum forsettlement of disputes in interna-tional trade.”

The new court aims to provide a “convenient, speedy and fair”means of resolving intellectualproperty and international trade cases.


National news


WIPO publications may be obtained from the Information Products Section:

WIPO34, chemin des Colombettes P.O. Box 18CH-1211 Geneva 20Switzerland

Orders should indicate: (a) the number or letter code of the publication desired, the language (E for English,), the number of copies; (b) the full address for mailing; (c) the mail mode (surface or air).Prices cover surface mail.Bank transfers should be made to WIPO account No. 487080-81, at the Swiss Credit Bank, 1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland.

Products

The following new product was issued by WIPO in October 1998:

Catalogue of Products 1998 (English) (E), free.

phone: 41 22 338 91 11fax: 41 22 740 18 12e-mail: [email protected]

Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (First Session)

The Committee will discuss issues concerning the development of copy-right and related rights, particularly the implementation of the WIPOCopyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty,the protection of audiovisual performances, the protection of databasesand the protection of the rights of broadcasting organizations.Invitations: As members, the States members of WIPO and other delega-tions that the Committee may admit as members; as observers, otherStates and certain organizations.

Intellectual Property and Human Rights

The Panel Discussion, organized in coordination with the Office of theHigh Commissioner for Human Rights, will discuss issues concerningintellectual property rights and aspects of economic, social and culturaldevelopment.Invitations: The States members of WIPO, intergovernmental organiza-tions, specially invited experts and certain interested organizations andacademics.

Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (First Session, second part)

The Committee will continue to discuss and consider issues to be dealtwith in the area of patent law, in particular, the draft Patent Law Treaty.Invitations: As members, the States members of WIPO and other delega-tions that the Committee may admit as members; as observers, otherStates and certain organizations.

November 2 to 10 (Geneva)

November 9 (Geneva)

November 16 to 20 (Geneva)

Calendar of meetings


Advisory Committee on Management of Copyright and Related Rights

in Global Information Networks (First Session)

The Advisory Committee will review the operation of those electroniccopyright management systems (ECMS) and electronic identification systems which exist or are under development.Invitations: Interested organizations and specially invited experts.

Group of Consultants on the Private International Aspects of the

Protection of Works and Objects of Related Rights Transmitted

Through Global Digital Networks

The group of consultants will discuss the above-mentioned aspects on the basis of two studies to be prepared by experts.Invitations: Specially invited experts and interested organizations.

Standing Committee on the Law of Trademarks, Industrial Designs

and Geographical Indications (Second Session)

The Committee will continue its work based upon the results achieved atits first session with regard to draft provisions on well-known marks andissues relating to trademarks and the Internet. Invitations: As members, the States members of WIPO and other delegationsthat the Committee may admit as members; as observers, other States andcertain organizations.

Standing Committee on Information Technologies (SCIT)

(Second Plenary Session)

The Committee will discuss policy matters and recommendations made byits Working Groups concerning the establishment of a global informationnetwork and its applications, including Intellectual Property DigitalLibraries.Invitations: As members, the States members of WIPO and certain organiza-tions; as observers, other States and certain organizations.

Conference on Intellectual Property and Electronic Commerce

The Conference will address the impact of electronic commerce on intel-lectual property and will include plenary sessions on general developmentsin electronic commerce and their implications for intellectual property, aswell as workshops on the various areas of WIPO’s work program associat-ed with electronic commerce, such as Internet domain names, the WIPOCopyright Treaty (WCT) and the WIPO Performances and PhonogramsTreaty (WPPT), work on a protocol to the WPPT on audiovisual works,the use of trademarks on the Internet and the use of electronic commercetools in the delivery of intellectual property services.Invitations: Member States, international/regional organizations, other States,non-governmental organizations and any interested members of the public,against payment of a registration fee.

Assemblies of the Member States of WIPO (Thirty-fourth Series of Meetings)

All Bodies of the Assemblies of the Member States of WIPO will meet intheir ordinary sessions.Invitations: As members or observers, the States members of WIPO; as observers, other States and certain organizations.

December 14 and 15 (Geneva)

December 16 to 18 (Geneva)

January 18 to 22 (Geneva)

February 8 to 12 (Geneva)

June 23 to 25

(Palais des Nations, Geneva)

September 20 to 29 (Geneva)

1999

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