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Brussels 04/11/09Brussels BXLcebitWIPO 04-05Demo 04-05Berlin 04-03-10

WIPO 2004-05-10..4 Geneva Patent Policy Session
Commemorate Banana Union Day

The World Intellectual Property Organisation's Standing Committee on Patent Law is meeting in Geneva for a week to work on the draft Substantive Patent Law Treaty. This treaty aims to mandate worldwide unlimited patentability while imposing strict limitations on patent quality. Not all governments are happy with this attempt at bypassing democracy in areas where fundamental freedoms are concerned. WIPO should act as a standardising agency and not as a world legislator on substantive patent law. FFII plans to spread the word in Geneva and in the participating countries. We will be one of very few NGOs who are not pushing for extension of right-holder interests.

Annotated Links

->OMPI et ronde de négotiation au sein de l'OMC
The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) is dedicated to promoting "intellectual property" related myths and to "harmonising" the relevant laws of various countries in order to establish a worldwide uniform patent system at the level of international law. This means that innovators will be entitled to worldwide patent protection at very favorable conditions, and, as a consequence, all states will be obliged under international law to accept low patentability standards as an unalterable reality, regardless of whether this serves to promote the progress of science and the useful arts or not. WIPO has already gone a long way toward this goal. After the TRIPS treaty of 1993, a Substantive Patent Law Treaty is about to mandate unlimited patentability with strict limitations on patent quality.
->Substantive Patent Law Treaty Draft: Unlimited Patentability and Strict Limits on Patent Quality to be hardcoded into international law
Through international patent treaties, the worldwide patent movement, a lobby of patent lawyers who speak in the name of multinational corporations, industry associations and governments, has already installed an unflexible system, where patents of 20 years runtime have to be granted for "any invention in any field of technology". Now the arm of the patent movement at the United Nations, the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) seems to be preparing a further advance in what a study report of the United Nations Development Project (UNDP) calls "the relentless march of intellectual property".
->FFII Projects
->Free Information Infrastructure 2004
->WIPO Conferences
Contains some info about upcoming events
->SCP/10
10th Session of the Standing Committee on Patent Law (SCP) in Geneva. Substantive Patent Law Treaty (SPLT) is on the agenda.
->WIPO Patent Agenda Timetable
Events of 2002, no information on 2004 visible
->Request for Comments on Patent Agenda
Closing date was 2004/02/15

  1. Comment by Brian Kahin
  2. Comment by John Tobey
->Wipo bangs the Drum
WIPO has just published a 377 page brochure, "Intellectual Property - A Power Tool for Economic Growth", aimed at policy-makers in businesses and governments worldwide, and as the preface puts it, "written from a definite perspective -- that IP is good".
->Accreditations for Standing Committee on Traditional Knowledge
We need something analogous for SPLT. Also we need to describe FFII in terms similar to those used here.
->Patentability Legislation Benchmarking Test Suite
In order to test a law proposal, we try it out on a set of sample innovations. Each innovation is described in terms of prior art, a technical contribution (invention) and a small set of claims. Assuming that the descriptions are correct, we then test our proposed legislation on them. The focus is on clarity and adequacy: does the proposed rule lead to a predictable verdict? Which of the claims, if any, will be accepted? Is this result what we want? We try out different law proposals for the same test series and see which scores best. Software professionals believe that you should "first fix the bugs, then release the code". Test suites are a common way of achieving this. Pursuant to Art 27 TRIPS, legislation belongs to a "field of technology" called "social engineering", doesn't it? Technology or not, it is time to approach legislation with the same methodological rigor that is applicable wherever bad design decisions can significantly affect people's lives.

Questions, Things To Do, How you can Help

If you have any questions concerning the wipo project, please do not hesitate to contact user wipo-help on machine ffii org.

?!?Contact WIPO to accredit FFII
see also akred
?!?Prepare materials
These should be useful for participating delegations. They include

Analysis of SPLT

  • Analysis and classifciation of EPO software patents
  • Proposals for standards that can be useful for cooperation in classifying patents without the implication that any such patents must be valid in any particular country.
  • Information about the European traditional approach to the technical invention and its reconfirmation by the European Parliament
  • Information about the WSIS summit.
  • Simple awareness-raising leaflets
  • name cards, [...]
?!?Contact Participants of the session
Find out who will participate, exchange ideas on what we can contribute.

Some governmental officials may be quite happy to accept our help in developping their approaches.

[ 2004-11-09..11 Brussels: Regulating Knowledge -- Costs, Risks and Models of Innovation | Legislation Benchmarking Conference Brussels 2004/04/28-9 | CeBit 2004-03-18..24 | WIPO 2004-05-10..4 Geneva Patent Policy Session | Local Action Days 2004/05/08-12 | Parliamentary Evening Berlin 2004-03-10 ]
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english version 2004/08/16 by Hartmut PILCH