TOWARDS DEVELOPMENT-ORIENTED IP POLICY: SETTING
AN AGENDA FOR THE NEXT FIVE YEARS
The Bellagio Series on Development and Intellectual
Property Policy
At the
Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Study and Conference Center
on Lake Como in Northern Italy,
30 October - 2 November 2002
Description
| Background
Note | Programme
| Participants
| Documentation
Description
A group of
specialists, government experts and members of international and
non-governmental organizations, met in their personal capacity,
from 30 October to 2 November 2002, in the context of the Bellagio
Series on Development and Intellectual Property Policy sponsored
by the Rockefeller Foundation.
Participants at the
Dialogue were unanimous in recognizing that
intellectual property (IP) has never been more economically and
politically important or controversial than it is today. Patents,
copyrights, trademarks, industrial designs, integrated circuits
and geographical indications are frequently mentioned in discussions
and debates on such diverse topics as public health, agriculture,
education, trade, industrial policy, traditional knowledge, biodiversity,
biotechnology, the Internet, the entertainment and media industries,
and increasingly the widening gap between the income levels of
the developed countries and the developing, and especially least-developed,
countries. An understanding of IP is indispensable to informed
policy making in all areas of human development.
The Dialogue consisted of strategic discussions to identify concrete recommendations
that could contribute to the formulation of development-oriented
IP policies. The recommendations were directed not only to the
Council for TRIPS and the Doha Development Agenda but other important
national, bilateral and regional initiatives and processes relating
to IP and development. The four themes covered were (i) the future
of IPRs in the multilateral trading system; (ii) meeting the challenge
of new treaty development and harmonization; (iii) promoting effective
national policy formulation; and (iv) integrating IP policies
in development strategies.
In view of the importance of the meeting the organizers have
considered useful to make available all the relevant material
of the Dialogue including the background papers and the informal
report of the meeting. One outcome of the Dialogue was the launching
of the Frati Initiative with the view of initiating a process
of follow-up and monitoring to the ideas and suggestions made
during the Dialogue.
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