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Add a new paragraph no.5 to Strategic Goal III “Facilitating the Use of IP for Development, in the Challenges and Opportunities section, page 21:
v- Overcoming the Language Divide. A large number of developing and least-developed Member States face a challenge in being able to comprehend, positively communicate and interact in the important discussions, deliberations and negotiations in all WIPO bodies, including important deliberations with legal implications, due to the language barrier of the unavailability of documents and publications in all of the official languages of the United Nations. This is also the case with regard to the benefit that these Member States can gain from WIPO’s publications and documents at the experts’ national level. As a result, this has a negative effect on the extent to which WIPO can benefit these Member States, and likewise, limits the ability of consensus building.
Add a new paragraph under Strategies (vi) of the above Goal III, page 22:
-Bridging the Language Divide. WIPO will adopt the language policy as stipulated in Strategic Goal IX below in order to facilitate and achieve positive interaction with IP issues, both in its various bodies in Geneva, as well as at the national level in Member States.
Replace paragraph 11 of the strategies in the Strategic Goal IX "An Efficient Administrative and Management Support Structure to enable WIPO to deliver its Mandate" page 39, with the following paragraph:
- Formulate a comprehensive language policy to address the language divide, and that aims to use all six official languages of the United Nations, including as working languages, on a fair and equitable basis and responsive to the needs of Member States. The comprehensive language policy will be implemented gradually over this Medium Term plan, to be carried out systematically towards its full and complete implementation by the end of 2015. This comprehensive language policy will cover WIPO documents, publications, interpretation, and all WIPO web sites. WIPO will review all its legal instruments and related procedures to reflect this comprehensive language policy.
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TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
WIPO General Assemblies, Geneva, Switzerland, September 20-29, 2010
COMMENT: Agenda Item 9 - Medium Term Strategic Plan (MTSP)
The delegation of Trinidad and Tobago has considered documents A/48/3 and A/48/24 and offers the following comments:
We wish to commend WIPO for the tremendous work and consultations that obviously went into the preparation of this plan and this document as well. It presents a wealth of valuable information from several Committees and negotiating fora all together for ease of reference. The foreword by the Director General was particularly insightful as to the prevailing trends and anticipated frontiers in intellectual property. More important is the encouragement this Plan provides and the glimpse into an interesting future for IP development all around. The thrust outlined in the Plan actually reflects a similar vision Trinidad and Tobago has for the future development of IP in Trinidad and Tobago and how WIPO should be evolving to meet similar kinds of developmental needs. Like many countries taking IP development seriously, Trinidad and Tobago has progressed from achieving TRIPs compliance and being occupied with norm-setting to raising awareness of IP in the general population. The IP-awareness being sought is to the degree that creators and users of the IP system become IP-savvy and able to benefit from and strategically use IP. It could be considered moving from theoretical IP to applied IP.
Even before WIPO or notions of IP existed historically, people have always been creative. That creativity was not always with a defined sense of ownership due to the low value that was placed on knowledge and the ease with which knowledge entered the public domain. Over the years, the formal IP system is catching up with the way knowledge is labeled, dispersed and utilized because knowledge evolves as much as the modes of creation and distribution of knowledge, as can be seen in the digital work. Future creation and distribution will doubtless be something not thought of or experienced before but the IP system will need to be flexible and fearless enough to accommodate it. In that regard, the agreed Strategic Goals and Strategies appear to be able to endow WIPO with the capacity to assist member states in closing the IP divide and promoting applied IP. It also appears to give WIPO the pliability to accommodate future knowledge and perhaps other forms of “old knowledge” as discussions on traditional knowledge may open up other avenues.
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Trinidad and Tobago has never regarded WIPO as a static entity. IP is a dynamic area that is constantly evolving. Therefore, the challenge for WIPO in achieving these strategic goals is for WIPO to be as dynamic as the very IP system it seeks to administer. If WIPO moves to become a sort of nexus of global intellectual property, we are sure it will recognize the responsibility and deep trust that goes along with such an objective. The process that has already begun of extensive consultation and transparency will serve to deepen trust. That trust will engender the confidence necessary among users and member states to see the attainment of those Strategic Goals.
The limitation foreseen in execution of the various Strategies is perhaps the newer technical competencies and capacities that WIPO may have to develop or acquire. Here the essential human resource component that delivers on trust and yields the high customer satisfaction comes to the fore. Therefore, it may become necessary to revisit the Desk-to-desk Assessment as a necessary pre-requisite to engaging in the MTSP process.
It seems that all of these Strategic Goals will impinge on the human resource capacity of WIPO. Even as WIPO seeks to engage in Results-Based Management, any assessment will be seen through the perspective of the review team. Issues may be similar to those that arise in the review of technical assistance currently provided by WIPO. Technical assistance for development is expected to guide developing countries on a path of using IP to benefit economic, cultural and social development. As the emphasis is on developing countries, the technical assistance providers ought not to presume that member states would necessarily know what type, extent and duration of technical assistance would be required to achieve the said economic, cultural and social development goals.
It has been observed, particularly in the Caribbean region, that there have been too many instances of technical assistance activities attempting to foist a one-size-fits-all program on a number of member states at various levels of IP development. The programs may be intrinsically sound and well meaning but are sometimes inappropriately timed or targeted. The generally low awareness of IP in the Caribbean region means that often recipients may be impressed and appreciative of the activity but building real IP capacity will fall short if there is no short term application of what is learned or disseminated. For example, a technology licensing activity is of prime interest but actual application to practice will be depend on where participants are on the IP developmental curve and if they have any IP or potential IP to license.
In assessing a case as given previously, there are two prime sources of guidance and formulation of activities that are prime determinants in the success, failure and delayed attainment of a goal. Very often the focus is on the program itself and the intrinsic merit. Member states may request certain activities or WIPO may suggest certain activities. Therefore, measurable success in terms of effectiveness, impact, efficiency and relevance may depend as much on how well formulated the request of the member state was, the readiness of the participants, follow up and implementation by the national authority and the support the national authority received from the respective government. These factors in addition to program and project management and coordination of technical assistance for development may depend on the experience and skill of the program officer. This relates directly to the possible quality of the WIPO/Member State/Stakeholder interface as outlined in Strategic Goal VIII and other related Goals.
It has been the experience of the Trinidad and Tobago Intellectual Property Office that industry or IP experience plays a significant role in how well program officers interpret requests from member states to formulate appropriate activities under technical assistance. The perspective may differ depending on experience within the challenges faced by national authorities in developing countries. We would like to suggest the methodology should include such a background assessment. The present methodology focuses on the end results and empirical success. A well planned and executed program may fail for incomplete support by member countries and a poorly executed program may succeed or fall short slightly by dint of the efforts of the member state to make the best of a bad situation. The backgrounds and preparedness of the organizers will also determine the gap analysis – how an activity could have been improved or how it could have turned out much worse. A consideration to improve the quality of the WIPO/Member State/Stakeholder interface should therefore be closely linked to a review of the human resources capacity of WIPO especially with respect to the IP industry, operational and examination experience.
Trinidad and Tobago looks forward to any opportunity to participate in the MTSP process and can provide more specific feedback if the need arises.
UNITED KINGDOM
From: Delegation of the United Kingdon
Sent: Mon Sep 27 14:05:51 2010
Subject: MTSP
