The Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP) is a body created by WIPO’s general assembly in 2008. It is tasked with creating and adapting programs according to the 45 recommendations of the Development Agenda. The CDIP will be meeting from May 19th to the 23rd of this year and has many items on its agenda. Several topics are planned for discussion, the most relevant of which will follow.
First, the committee has chosen to have a third party independent review of its implementation of the development agenda recommendations to its programs. Before doing this however, the committee must discuss and arrive at a consensus on the terms of reference to be used for the review (CDIP/13 Webcast: Mon 19 – English Morning Session).
The next item has the CDIP tasked with the discussion and reporting of two important issues. The first is the implementation of the ‘Coordination Mechanism’, or the Coordination Mechanisms and Monitoring, Assessing and Reporting Modalities, which requests reports from all WIPO bodies on how they are implementing the development agenda recommendations. Secondly, CDIP must come to consensus on a new agenda item on the third pillar of the CDIP mandate, Technology Transfer, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Access to Knowledge. According to WIPO Director General Francis Gurry, this “cannot be referred back to the General Assembly until such time as you, in the CDIP, have reached agreement upon a recommendation that can form the basis of a decision of the General Assembly” (CDIP/13 Webcast: Mon 19 – English Morning Session).
The External Review of WIPO Technical Assistance in the Area of Cooperation for Development will further be discussed in order to identify the best ways to improve WIPO’s technical assistance activities. Technical assistance, in this context, refers to the development of programs that will enable developing nations to participate in the global intellectual property system. This encompasses a number of programs including online services that seek to facilitate filing and registering IP rights and other initiatives that seek to better integrate regional systems to the global IP infrastructure (WIPO).
Finally, the CDIP will discuss Patent Related Flexibilities in the Multilateral Legal Framework and their Legislative Implementation at the National and Regional Levels. According to recommendation 14 of the WIPO’s Development Agenda, “Within the framework of the agreement between WIPO and the WTO, WIPO shall make available advice to developing countries and LDCs, on the implementation and operation of the rights and obligations and the understanding and use of flexibilities contained in the TRIPS Agreement” (WIPO).
