The World Intellectual Property Organisation and the development agenda

Global Society

Volumn 22, Issue 1, 2008, Pages 97-113

  May, Christopher ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS; ORGANIZATIONAL FRAMEWORK; POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT; UNITED NATIONS;

EID: 37849031245     PISSN: 13600826     EISSN: 1469798X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13600820701740753     Document Type: Article

References (56)

1. The developmental effects of enforcing strong IPRs have become a major issue of debate in both the academic and the policy-related advocacy literature. Much of this debate is concerned with whether or not there is a threshold over which countries may pass, when their developmental aims become better served by enforcing IPRs, when previously the "free" availability of imported knowledge and informational technologies might have been more beneficial. See, for instance, Chistophe Bellmann, Graham Dutfield and Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz (eds.), Trading in Knowledge: Development Perspectives on TRIPs, Trade and Sustainability (London: Earthspan, 2003); John Boyle (ed.), "Law and Contemporary Problems", Special issue of The Public Domain Vol. 66, No. 1/2 (Winter/Spring 2003); Carsten Fink and Keith E. Maskus (eds.), Intellectual Property and Development: Lessons from Recent Economic Research (New York: World Bank/Oxford University Press, 2005)
2. Debora J. Halbert, Resisting Intellectual Property (London: Routledge 2005)
3. Nagesh Kumar, "Intellectual Property Rights, Technology and Economic Development: Experiences of Asian Countries", Economic and Political Weekly (18 January 2003), pp. 209-226
4. Christopher May, A Global Political Economy of IPRs, 2nd revised edn (London: Routledge, 2008, forthcoming)
5. Robert L. Ostergard, The Development Dilemma: The Political Economy of IPRs in the International System (New York: LFB, 2003)
6. Susan Sell, Private Power, Public Law: The Globalization of IPRs (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003)
7. Kenneth Shadlen, "Intellectual Property, Trade and Development: Can Foes be Friends?", Global Governance, Vol. 13, No. 2 (2007), pp. 171-177
8. Vandana Shiva, Protect or Plunder (London: Zed Books, 2001)
9. Jayashree Watal, Intellectual Property Rights in the WTO and Developing Countries (New Delhi: Oxford University Press-India, 2001).
10. Much of this section summarises material from Christopher May, The World Intellectual Property Organisation: Resurgence and the Development Agenda (London: Routledge, 2007).
11. Due to the time constraints none of the original members were able to ratify the Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organisation before 1970, but in that year 20 states completed the process.
12. Arpad Bogsch, The First Twenty-five Years of the World Intellectual Property Organisation from 1967 to 1992,WIPO Publication No. 881 (E) (Geneva: International Bureau of Intellectual Property, 1992), p. 28.
13. Ibid.
14. Agreement between the United Nations and the World Intellectual Property Organisation, available:, http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/agreement. (accessed 1 October 2007).
15. Christopher May and Susan Sell, Intellectual Property Rights: A Critical History (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2005), ch. 7.
16. Frederick Abbot, "Toward a New Era of Objective Assessment in the Field of TRIPs and Variable Geometry for the Preservation of Multilateralism", Journal of International Economic Law, Vol. 8, No. 1 (2005), p. 84.
17. Susan Sell, "Intellectual Property and the Doha Development Agenda", in Donna Lee and Rorden Wilkinson (eds.), The WTO after Hong Kong (London: Routledge, 2007), pp. 56-72.
18. See Christopher May "Unacceptable Costs: The Consequences of Making Knowledge Property in a Global Society", Global Society, Vol. 16, No. 2 (2002), pp. 123-144.
19. World Intellectual Property Organisation, Introduction to Intellectual Property Theory and Practice (London: Kluwer Law International, 1997), p. 30.
20. Ibid., p. 42.
21. Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Integrating Intellectual Property Rights and Development Policy (London: CIPR/Department for International Development, 2002).
22. Viviana Munroz Tellez, The WIPO Development Agenda: The Campaign to Reform Intellectual Property Policy-making, Report for the Intellectual Property and NGOs Project) (London: Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute, 2006), available:, http://www.ipngos.org/ Ngo%20Briefings/the%20WIPO%20Development%20Agenda.pdf. (accessed 1 October 2007).
23. See Kumar, op. cit.
24. May and Sell, op. cit.
25. Sisule F. Musungu, "The WIPO Assemblies 2004: A Review of the Outcomes", South Bulletin, No. 89 (15 October 2004), pp. 1-5.
26. Martin Khor, "Strong Support from Developing Countries for Development Agenda at WIPO Assembly", Third World Network: Info Service on WTO and Trade Issues (5 October 2004), available:, http://www.twnside.org.sg/title2/twninfo165.htm. (accessed 1 October 2007)
27. the Geneva Declaration on the Future of WIPO was reproduced in South Bulletin, No. 88 (30 September 2004).
28. South Bulletin, No. 88 (30 September 2004) and all quotations are taken from this source.
29. Quoted in Sisule F. Musungu, "A Review of the Outcomes of WIPO Discussions on the Development Agenda Proposal", Bridges, Vol. 8, No. 9 (October 2004), pp. 21-22.
30. See the elaboration reproduced in South Bulletin, No. 101 (15 April 2005).
31. See the proposal reproduced in ibid.
32. Andréa Koury Menescal, "Changing WIPO'sWays? The 2004 Development Agenda in Historical Perspective", Journal of World Intellectual Property, Vol. 8, No. 6 (2005), pp. 761-796.
33. May and Sell, op. cit., ch. 7.
34. Anonymous source quoted inWilliam New, "Industry Concerned about Development Agenda at WIPO", Intellectual Property Watch (8 November 2005), available:, http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/ wp-trackback.php/125. (accessed 1 October 2007).
35. Author's personal conversation with F. Scott Kieff (Florence, October 2005)
36. Eric Smith, International Intellectual Property Alliance, quoted in New, "Industry Concerned", op. cit.
37. May and Sell, op. cit., ch. 7.
38. Tellez, op. cit.
39. Space precludes a full discussion of all the various proposals, but an overview can be found in Sisule F. Musungu, Rethinking Innovation, Development and Intellectual Property in the UN: WIPO and Beyond, TRIPS Issues Papers: 5 (Geneva: Quaker United Nations Office, 2005), section 3.2.1.
40. Musungu, ibid., p. 8.
41. William New, "Reform Debate Trips up WIPO Development Aid Meeting", Intellectual Property Watch (15 April 2005), available:, http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/wp-trackback.php/45. (accessed 1 October 2007)
42. "Results of the 2005 Assemblies of WIPO Member States", WIPO Magazine (November-December 2005), p. 3.
43. William New, "In a 'Major Achievement', WIPO Negotiators Create New Development Mandate", Intellectual Property Watch (18 June 2007), available:, http://ip.watch.org/weblog/wptrackback/php?p=656. (accessed 1 October 2007).
44. William New, "Non-profits, Industry Offers Views on WIPO Development Agenda", Intellectual Property Watch (14 April 2005) available:, http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/wp-trackback.php/44. (accessed 1 October 2007).
45. Menescal, op. cit.
46. William New, "Europe Calls for Continuation of the WIPO Development Agenda Talks", Intellectual Property Watch (27 July 2005), available:, http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/wptrackback.php/82. (accessed 1 October 2007).
47. William New, "WIPO Development Agenda Talks End with No Agreement for Now", Intellectual Property Watch (3 July 2006), available:, http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/wp-trackback.php?p=346. (accessed 1 October 2007).
48. "WIPO Development Agenda Meeting Breaks Down over Chair's Text", BRIDGESWeekly Trade News Digest, Vol. 10, No. 24 (5 July 2006), available at http://www.ictsd.org/weekly/archive.htm (accessed 1 October 2007).
49. New, "WIPO Development Agenda Talks End with No Agreement for Now", op. cit.
50. "WIPO Members Agree on Development Agenda", BRIDGES Weekly Trade News Digest, Vol. 11, No. 22 (20 June 2007), available at http://www.ictsd.org/weekly/archive.htm (accessed 1 October 2007).
51. Sisule F. Musungu and Graham Dutfield, Multilateral Agreements and a TRIPs-plus World: The World Intellectual Property Organisation, TRIPs Issue Papers: 3 (Geneva: Quaker United Nations Office, 2003), 19.
52. Sell and May, op. cit.
53. Musungu and Dutfield, Multilateral Agreements and a TRIPs-plus World, op. cit., pp. 19-20.
54. Musungu, "The WIPO Assemblies 2004", op. cit.
55. Tellez, op. cit.
56. Daniel W. Drezner, All Politics is Global: Explaining International Regulatory Regimes (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007), p. 194.