I was in Tunis last week to participate in a WIPO seminar on implementation of the development agenda by Arab member states. Most of the delegates were representatives of national IP offices, though there were also some international diplomats. It was surprising (though in hindsight, it shouldn't have been) that most of the people there had not even heard of WIPO's development agenda, let alone understood its purpose and effect. By the end the seminar's third day, however, people began to see how the agenda might influence their activities at the national level, and what might be done to promote its underlying values. The experience proved to me the need for and value of WIPO's work in this area.
My remarks were mostly based on the content of my recently published collection of essays in Implementing the WIPO's Development Agenda. A summary of what I had to say during my four presentations follows:
