The three pending topics – WIPO's Development Agenda, the Broadcasting Treaty and the Substantive Patent Law Treaty – were settled. Actually, the way those subjects will keep being managed was settled.

After more than one week of discussions; after informal meetings during last Saturday, the 30th of September; and after diverse and consecutive versions to proposals of how to deal with the three pending subjects, on Monday, the 2nd of October of 2006, the WIPO General Assembly finally reached an agreement. The resulting documents of those agreements were officially adopted on the following day, in the General Assembly conclusion.

 

By Pedro Paranagua

Heavy weight US companies signed a document at the WIPO against the Broadcasting Treaty.

Some heavy weight US companies strongly rejected the WIPO Broadcasting Treaty, arguing that if a Diplomatic Conference occurs to settle a treaty by the end of 2007, as until this now – proposed here at the General Assembly of the WIPO, in Geneva, the content of such shouldn’t include the protection for broadcasted content, nonetheless webcasting (broadcasting via Internet), but only the protection against signal theft.

This is the position of many developing countries, such as South Africa, Chile, Brazil, etc...

On the 25th of September, WIPO General Assemblies has begun, an event of the highest scale on WIPO´s hierarchy.

The way things are going on here is very different from the Development Agenda’s gatherings. The sumptuous plenary is completely packed with more than 300 members of delegations, many of them in chairs and even tables arranged provisorly. In the main room, there’s no space for any NGO, which have to stay in the room B, on the side, and watch the debates through simultaneously transmission on a wide screen with images of the main room.