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For those of you following international IP law and policy, you'll know that last year WIPO's General Assembly endorsed 45 recommendations relating to a "Development Agenda." That itself was a significant and exciting achievement. But the litmus test for success is how these recommendations are implemented in practice. As the EDGE Network's research theme leader in technology and intellectual property, I've been steering a multidisciplinary and multinational project working on practical strategies to implement the DA.
Team members are working on a range of key topics related to strategic
implementation of the DA. Some, like Carolyn Deere, Sisule Musungu,
Richard Gold and Jean-Fréderic Morin are working on issues related to
WIPO governance and institutional reform. Others, such as Peter Yu,
Andrew Rens and Sara Bannerman are thinking about coalition building,
new opportunities for negotiations and insights gleaned from concepts
in international relations. Important strategies pertaining to
evaluation, impact assessment and classification is being done by Li
Xuan and Shamnad Basheer. And team members Vivek Anand, Li Lihong, Xue
Hong and Pedro Paranagua are considering the lessons that can be
learned from the emerging economic powerhouses of India, China and
Brazil. To help craft incisive implementation strategies,
world-renowned experts like Li Mingde, Daniel Gervais and Christopher
May have been working with the team to review, discuss and advise on
ideas for moving forward.
With funding from the IDRC
and EDGE Network, and in partnership with the University of Hong Kong,
we wrapped up a very successful workshop in Hong Kong earlier this
week. We received and discussed draft papers on all of the above
topics, and began to make plans for publication and dissemination. The
goal is to have our series of essays on implementation strategies ready
for this summer's run-up to the next meeting of the WIPO General
Assembly in September. More details will be posted here as soon as they
become available.
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