Intellectual Property
The Quaker United
Nations Office in Geneva works in collaboration with the Quaker
International Affairs Programme (QIAP) on trade and intellectual
property issues. In the last 20 years, new rules on the scope and territorial extent for intellectual property rights (patents, copyrights, trademarks, etc.) have expanded beyond national and existing multilateral arenas (i.e. World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO)) to bilateral, regional and World Trade Organisation (WTO) trade agreements.
The new rules being negotiated extend high minimum standards for intellectual property protection on all signatory states at the WTO (the majority of which are developing countries) and in regional/bilateral agreements. As a result, developing countries no longer have the same flexibility or policy options that developed countries had over the past 200 years in using intellectual property to support what is appropriate for their level of national development.
These new rules apply to a range of biologically based materials, including life forms (such as microorganisms, seeds and plants), that many countries may not have previously been obliged to protect. This will impact upon key development areas important for social and economic prosperity such as: food security, agriculture and access to genetic resources, biodiversity, environment, health and access to essential medicines, and the protection of traditional knowledge, folklore and cultural property.
QUNO and QIAP aim to enhance the fairness of the negotiating process by providing information to decisions-makers and facilitating off-the-record dialogue.
Independent Evaluation of QUNO's work on IP
QUNO's programme on IP was reviewed in 2004 by the Policy and Operations Evaluation Department, an independent evaluation service in the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Click Here for the full report: "Evaluation of Trade- Related Technical Assitance, Three Geneva Based Organisations: ACWL, AITC and QUNO".
|
Email this page